The Swordsman Chronicles
by TwistedFilms
Summary: Trapped in a game of death, introverted gamer Kirigaya Kazuto has to reconsider his stance on always playing solo. A reimagining of the original story, set in a slightly more mature version of SAO with new game mechanics, a heavier emphasis on guild politics and a significantly less generous pain absorption meter. Eventual KiritoxAsuna / GuildMaster Kirito.
1. Chapter 1 - Information Chapter

**\- The Swordsman Chronicles -**

 _ **A Story By Twisted Films**_

All rights reserved, SAO is the property of Reki Kawahara

* * *

The phenomenon known as Sword Art Online has long acted as quite the source of inspiration for me, as evident by my countless (failed) attempts at writing a story set within its universe. Most of these stories were written back when I was a horny 14-year old, and as such, the quality of my writing was about as horrible as you would expect. But now, after multiple all-nighters and several horrible plots thrown to the wayside, I think I might have finally come up with something worthwhile.

So let me start off by providing you with some quite important details about this story, and where I plan to take it. This is crucial information, so I urge you to take your time reading this little segment.

* * *

 **This story will be a completely different beast than that of the canon version of SAO.**

This is by no means a "re-telling" of the original story. What I aim to do here is essentially rewrite the entire Aincrad Arc, introducing new plotlines, new characters and a bunch of new elements and game mechanics as I go along. Thus why I call this a "reimagining" instead of a "re-telling" or "redo". I want to portray a different version of SAO, a version that we never got to see in the original novels. This, however, does not mean that old characters like Klein, Lizbeth and Silica will be thrown to the wayside. They will still play a huge role in the story, just in a different manner.

 **This will be a mature fanfiction, which means that it will include mature themes such as excessive violence, swearing and hints at sexual behavior.**

If you are not comfortable with that, I recommend turning around right now, because this will undoubtedly turn you off. Whilst the story itself is T-rated, I intend to push said rating to its limits, which might prove to be too much for some people.

 **I will also be making some changes to the Sword Art Online game and its mechanics.**

 **1.** The pain absorption meter will be dialed back quite a lot. Whilst an attack won't hit just as hard as it would in real life, cuts, bruises and taking damage in general will hurt. However, the feeling of pain will subside much faster than it would in real life.

 **2.** Player-Killing has been revamped. Now, I don't want to spoil anything here, but trust me when I say: PK-ing just got a whole lot scarier.

 **3.** Blood is a factor here. If you cut someone, blood will (naturally) leak from the wound. Dismemberment is therefore a real possibility. Dismembered limbs will, however, regenerate, although at a much slower rate than in the anime.

 **4.** Multiple new status effects have been added to the game, the first of which you will encounter in the chapter you are about to read. I did this due to the belief that it will add more flair to some of the in-game systems, and generally make it a more interesting experience.

 **5.** The hidden "Ethics Code" option buried deep in the player settings is always set to off. Yes, that means that there will be sexual themes showcased in this fanfiction. There will also perhaps be "lemons", or detailed descriptions of sexual interactions in this story, but if such a thing ever is introduced, the story will change its rating to M to reflect this.

 **6.** And finally, the Player-Housing system has been drastically expanded. You will realize what I mean by this later on in the story.

* * *

 **MMORPG TERMS EXPLAINED FOR NEW READERS**

 **(SKIP THIS IF YOU HAVE PLAYED AN MMO IN YOUR LIFE, OR KNOW THESE TERMS FROM BEFORE)**

 _This part is dedicated to informing new readers about all the different terms used in an MMORPG. If you know this from before, feel free to skip this section._

 **EXP** – Experience Points. You collect these by doing quests, killing monsters, utilizing your skills and so forth. Once you have enough, you will advance to the next level. This will improve your current stats. Simple as that.

 **Mobs** – Mobs is a term used to define multiple monsters. If I for instance write: "Kirito saw multiple mobs wandering about in the forest", that means I'm referring to a group of monsters walking around.

 **Skills** – Different things you can train yourself in and level up. Example: fishing, cooking, smithing and so forth.

 **Guild** – Group of players playing together under the command of one (or multiple) "guild leaders". Can be small or large, depending on the amount of players currently in the guild. Members have to follow rules set by the leader.

 **Stats** – Statistics displaying your current level in different skills, your armor rating, total damage output and so forth.

* * *

That marks the end of the informational chapter. I honestly do hope you enjoy the story, as I have put a lot of time and effort into writing this. Hopefully, I'll be able to create a version of Sword Art Online that we've never seen before!

-Twisted


	2. Chapter 2 - The Game Begins

**A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.**

* * *

I kept a close eye on the Feral Wolf as I rapidly maneuvered my way through my inventory screen. The rabid creature was snarling and growling at me, a steady stream of drool dripping from its jaws. A floating health bar above its head indicated that the monster had lost half its HP. Most of this damage was due to lucky hits I had been able to score when dodging the Feral Wolf's easily predictable attack patterns.

Despite being an avid gamer, I would say I was in a relatively good shape, with lean muscles covering the majority of my body. My medium-length black hair had been carefully brushed to the left in an arch to keep it from getting in my face during combat. My onyx eyes quickly scanned through my inventory, taking stock of my supplies.

Dammit. Only two Health Potions left. Dammit all to the abyss. I would have to make them count. Discarding my menu, I once again reverted my attention back to the beast standing before me. Bloodlust shone from its eyes, and the health bar informed me that the animal had just received the " **Enraged** " status effect. I vaguely remembered that whilst the beast was in Enraged-mode, it would receive a buff to its attack damage and speed, outweighed by a negative effect that would cause it to attack with wild abandon, taking little regard to its own safety. This would give me plenty of opportunities to strike.

Suddenly, the beast tensed up. I, who had been waiting for this moment, immediately fell down into a low crouching position with my sword pointed out and upwards from my body. I knew this particular attack like the back of my hand at this point. The Feral Wolf lunged in a desperate attack, oblivious to my secret strategy. Little did it know that in doing so, it had sealed its fate. As the animal came within my reach, I jabbed my sword forwards with surprising speed, effectively impaling the wolf. The sword cut straight through its soft belly, splashing warm blood on my hand and arm. As its health bar rapidly depleted, the wolf let out an ear-piercing shriek and exploded into a shower of tiny fragments.

Arms shaking and covered in blood, I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched the last remnants of the wolf disappear into the air. The stupid creature had practically killed itself by jumping on my sword. Sometimes the AI in this game could be too predictable.

I had been fighting these mobs all morning, in order to work up the Cor I needed to upgrade my somewhat weak armor. The feeling that every gamer worth his salt had experienced at some point flowed through my body: the excitement of upgrading your gear. Sadly, this moment didn't last. It never did. The crushing realization always returned, always came back to remind me that every day spent in here was a day lost in the real world. As I returned my sword to its sheath, I looked up at the evening sky, the trees around me casting long shadows on the ground. The sun was about to set.

It all seemed so real. The wind blowing through my hair, the smell of grass and the firmness of the sword in my hand. If I didn't know any better, I could've perhaps thought this to be the real world. To be fair, what was really the difference?

 _Everything around you is made up of 1s and 0s._

As much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, this wasn't the real world. I was living inside of a virtual reality. What I was seeing in front of me wasn't real.

 _Two weeks have passed, and we are still stuck at Floor 1. People are dying every day, their brains getting fried by the radio waves emitted from the NerveGear. Real people are dying, and we aren't making any real progress. Is this what true doom feels like? The impossibility of conquering this iron castle that is our prison?_

These thoughts kept me occupied as I started on the trek back to the village of Horunka.

* * *

In the year 2022, the technological genius and eccentric Kayaba Akihiko released the NerveGear. The new astonishing piece of tech allowed its user to experience Virtual Reality like never before by interrupting the signals sent from the brain at the base of the wearer's neck, redirecting them into the NerveGear instead. This allowed for total immersion in the virtual world, with the system taking control of all bodily senses like movement, sight, hearing and taste. The NerveGear would then send impulses "stimulating" these senses to the brain, giving the user the "experience" of eating and tasting something, when in reality, he or she was lying completely still on a bed.

Needless to say, the NerveGear was a huge commercial success, and garnered massive attention from the mainstream media. The device itself sold countless units to people all around the world, despite having almost zero applications designed for it yet. It was, in all honestly, a great time to be a geek.

Therefore, when news arrived saying that Kayaba Akihiko was developing his very own video game for the system, the gaming community worldwide went absolutely haywire. Gaming websites and news outlets exploded with articles about Akihiko's mysterious new game, with the press heralding him as the "Messiah of Technology". The game would be available to everyone worldwide, and boasted an impressive translation program that would automatically translate all speech to sound like your own native tongue, no matter what language it was originally spoken in. However, despite all of the media attention the project garnered, Kayaba remained incredibly humble, only agreeing to do a couple of interviews before going completely MIA. These few interviews marked the start of a period where no further news or updates were to be given on the progress of the video game for several years. This complete silence from Kayaba and his developers lead the press to start speculating on whether or not the whole ordeal was one big lie. The game became a target for constant ridicule on internet forums, with gamers stating "it would never be released".

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Kayaba Akihiko resurfaced, returning with a fully playable version of his game, which had now been given a name: "Sword Art Online". Suddenly, SAO was all the hype again. However, to the media's great frustration, access to the playable version was only given to 10,000 lucky players in Japan. Capturing any actual gameplay or taking screenshots from the game and sharing it was strictly forbidden, with perpetrators risking a lifetime ban if they were caught.

Throughout all of this, I had been keeping up with any rumors, any blog posts, any comments left on forums regarding Kayaba Akihiko's new game. I owned a NerveGear myself, and understood fully well the amount of potential the device held. If Kayaba could create a fully functional virtual reality world… I would honestly quit school and education just so I could move into that world instead.

So when launch day finally arrived, you bet I was first in line at my local game store, having spent the night in a tent outside the entrance. Even then, I only barely managed to snag myself a copy of the game before the stock ran out. Biking home with my heart beating wildly in my chest, I kicked the pedals harder than I had ever done before, racing to get home in time. Luckily enough, once I actually got home, I just about managed to get into the game, as at that point in time, the server could only hold a maximum of about 30,000 players.

The first few hours were great. I managed to get out of the Town of Beginnings, do a couple of quests, and was well on my way towards the second village when the forced teleport struck. At first, I thought it to be nothing more than a server-wide event to celebrate the launch of the game, but little did I know that my entire world was about to change.

In the time following Kayaba Akihiko's announcement that all of the players currently logged in to Sword Art Online were prisoners and that death in the game would mean death in the real world, most of the playerbase went into shock. Depression surged through us all like an evil wave, pushing several people to the brink of insanity. Many chose to end their own lives, by throwing themselves off the edge of the map.

Personally, I coped by throwing myself into danger. I ventured out as far as I could, slaying beast after beast along the way. It felt… cathartic, to mindlessly butcher them as I wallowed in my own self-despair. I must've looked crazy to anyone else, but at the time, I didn't particularly care. I just knew that whatever I was doing, it felt right.

The pain got easier to bear with time, of course. Hours turned to days, and before long, we were two weeks into the game, with no end in sight.

* * *

The village of Horunka was a small village located in the northwestern part of the First Floor. It consisted of ten buildings, including an inn, a weapon shop, and a tool shop. It was, for the most part, used as a hunting base for players who were looking to grind EXP from the nearby monsters. It also acted as the starting point for a couple of lesser-known quests, one of whom would gift the taker with an Anneal Blade, which was arguably the strongest one-handed sword one could get on the First Floor. Needless to say, that quest had been the first thing I had prioritized upon logging in.

The only reason I knew about it in the first place was due to my habit of hanging out on different internet forums that was known to have beta testers among its users. In the months and weeks prior to the launch of the game, I had pretty much always kept a tab open with the forums on my computer. Much to my own dismay, I hadn't personally gotten into the beta test, so everything I knew about the game came from game manuals, leaked forum posts, interviews and comments left by other beta testers.

Since Horunka Village was still relatively unknown to the majority of the players, I didn't encounter anyone as I headed towards the inn I was staying at. The small wooden building only had five rooms available, with me taking up one of them. A swordsman named Malthar took up another room, but I had never actually spoken to the guy, so naturally, I assumed he spent most of his day out and about, like I did.

The NPC innkeeper, a woman in her fifties, gave me a quick look as I entered the building. I paid her no attention. No dialog would be triggered unless I physically walked up to her anyway. Her AI was relatively simple like that. Walking up the staircase leading to the second floor, I caught a quick glimpse of another player entering one of the rooms before closing the door shut behind him.

 _That must've been Malthar,_ I thought to myself as I approached the door leading in to my own room. _Never seen the guy come back to the village so early. Wonder if something happened to him… Oh well._

As I opened the door, the lamp that stood next to the bed automatically turned on, illuminating the interior. It was a rather simple little room, sparsely decorated with a bed, a lamp, a desk and a wooden chair. It wasn't much, but it was enough for me, and definitely worth the small amount of Cor I had to pay to live here.

After maneuvering my way through my inventory and unequipping all of my gear, I finally laid down in my bed. The soft pillow felt good against my tired head, and after a short while, the lamp automatically turned off again. Letting out a long sigh, I turned around and got into a more comfortable position.

Sleep proved, as always, elusive, and I gave up after trying for 30 minutes. My thoughts drifted back to my family in the real world, and to my loving sister. A lump started appearing in my throat, and before long, a single tear rolled down my cheek.

 _I miss you._

Memories of my childhood surfaced from the depths of my mind, reminding me of better days, when I didn't have a care in the world. It was only Suguha and me against the world back then. We didn't need anyone else.

 _I can't do this alone… I don't want to do this alone! I'm not strong enough to survive this. I'm not._

In my head, I relived those memories, of playing Dungeons and Dragons with her in the basement, of sipping soda on the porch and watching the traffic zoom by, just the two of us.

 _You are my only friend…_

The tears were flowing freely now, streaking down my face before hitting the duvet with a soft thud. I stayed like that until I finally fell asleep, silently sobbing into my pillow, forced to relive memories I would rather forget.

 _I don't want to die… Please… someone… help me._

Of course, nobody would hear me. Nobody would be there to tell me that everything was going to be all right, that I wouldn't have to fight anymore. That I wouldn't have to risk my life every day fighting monsters and beasts that wished nothing more than to end my existence.

 _I don't… I don't want to die. Please… please… save us…_

* * *

Timeskip

 **December 7th, 2024 - Floor 2**

I let out a long sigh as my sword, the Anneal Blade +2, slid into the scabbard on my back with a satisfying sound. The sun was about to set, and the temperature had gone down from a scolding heat to a nice, comfortable breeze. The savanna stretched out in front of me, a barren yet beautiful landscape filled with all sorts of ox-type monsters, continually popping into existence. If I pretended for long enough, I might've been able to convince myself I was on a safari back in the real world. Needless to say, I wasn't. The magical scenery in front of me was nothing short of a virtual illusion, made up of 1s and 0s. Nothing in this world was real, after all. Not even my own body. The thought of that still sickened me, despite having been stuck in this game of death for over a month now.

Earlier that day, I had been lucky enough to overhear a conversation between two players in the town of Urbus, the main town of the Second Floor of the floating castle of Aincrad. The players had talked about an old lady who lived on a farm in the middle of the savanna, which was located on the western side of the Floor. The lady would apparently offer the player a quest which, judging by the players' heated conversation, had a rather decent reward. Deciding to check it out for myself, I had immediately headed out towards this rumored farm, only stopping by the general store to stock up on supplies.

After a rather tedious hike, I had finally spotted the lonesome farm in the distance. Talking to the old lady, I had quickly realized why the questgiver offered such a good reward. The quest, titled "Buffalo Frenzy", wanted the taker to retrieve 15 of the item " _Buffalo Horns_ ", which was only dropped by the (quite fittingly) buffalo-like monster called " **Wild Buffalo** ". In the Beta Version of the game, this wouldn't have been a problem, but after the launch of Sword Art Online and the start of the death game, the pain-absorption meter had been dialed back considerably, causing every attack in the game to hurt way more than what could be considered comfortable. Call it a sick little surprise by the genius and mastermind behind it all, Kayaba Akihiko. Now, with that in mind, imagine fighting a wild buffalo with nothing but a one-handed sword. Yeah, in all probability, you were going to get hurt. And let me tell you, hurt it did. After killing 9 of the wild beasts, I felt ready to drop dead on the spot, despite my HP-bar resting comfortably in the yellow zone. Every inch of my body ached from where the various buffalos had charged into me and knocked me over. The damn thing hit about as hard as a fire-truck, and despite my rather well-timed dodges, the monsters had still been able to score a few hits. After what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to kill enough " **Wild Buffalo** " to have 15 " _Buffalo Horns_ ".

The wind blew in my hair as I headed back towards the old lady's farm. The digital watch that rested comfortably in the upper right of my field of view told me it was 19.13 in the evening, which was later than I had thought it to be. Judging time correctly could be hard in Sword Art Online, especially for the frontline-players, who spent most of their time inside dungeons. Personally, I estimated myself to be above the average player in terms of levels, resting comfortably at Level 7, but I didn't consider myself a part of the frontline-group. After all, I hadn't been there when the Raid Group had taken on the first Floor Boss, **Illfang the Kobold Lord**.

* * *

On December the 4th, 2022, a blue-haired self-proclaimed "Knight" had held a meeting for players interested in taking on the First Floor Boss in one of the small villages on the First Floor. Personally, I hadn't been able to attend the meeting due to a rather taxing quest line involving several particularly annoying carnivorous plants, but judging from what I'd heard from other players, the meeting had been a success, and the newly formed raid party were to head out the following morning. At the time, I was still struggling to cope with the whole "stuck in a death game" thing, so I didn't exactly feel mentally prepared enough to participate in the boss battle.

The Floor Boss himself had turned out to harbor quite the nasty little surprise in the form of a brand-new weapon and attack pattern previously not seen in the beta, which sadly resulted in the loss of their group leader, causing a huge drop in moral amongst the players fighting the boss. However, due to the presence of two highly skilled players, a red-haired swordsman wielding a katana and a chestnut-haired female fencer, the group had successfully managed to take down the Floor Boss, thus opening the way to the Second Floor.

This was a huge victory, and not just for the frontline-players. At that point, over a month had passed, and no real progress had been made. People were beginning to lose hope, myself included. At the time, my entire existence had felt nothing short of meaningless. But when the Raid Group returned to the Town of Beginnings and announced to everyone that the Floor Boss had been beaten, and that the road to the Second Floor was clear, I dared hope. I dared hope that one day, I would be able to return to my family, be able to see them again, tell them how much I loved them. I was bad at that kind of stuff. Telling people how much I truly cared, how much they truly meant to me. But I made a promise to myself that day, that if I ever got out of Aincrad, if I managed to survive, then I would tell them. I owed them as much. I owed my sister as much, my best friend.

* * *

Walking along the narrow path that lead back to the old lady's farm, a familiar sensation hit me, one I had felt multiple times since the start of this death game. Loneliness. True, soul-crushing loneliness. I had been an avid gamer my entire life, and thus, I had grown quite accustomed to being alone. But this time, it felt different. For the first time in my relatively short life, I felt absolutely, completely alone. I had nobody. No family, no friends, absolutely nobody to lean on. No one would be there to comfort me, to support me, to have my back.

 _I can't… think like that. Not anymore. I can't surrender myself to grief. If I do… I will never get out of here alive_ , I thought to myself, teeth clenched. No more looking back. I was tired of crying.

It was funny, really. Almost ironic. Once, in my earlier days as a gamer, my biggest dream had been to be stuck in a game. Now that I actually was, I realized it was nothing short of a nightmare. People, real people, were dying every day, falling victim to the wickedness of the system. Yeah, being stuck in a game might've been fun. But this? This was hell.

After completing the quest by talking to the old lady and turning in the items, I was greeted by a small reward-window that listed the EXP and Cor I had gained, as well as a couple of items I had to choose between as a quest reward. After carefully looking at each one of them, I went with the item " _Strider Boots_ ", because they gave me a slight boost to stamina, agility and sprint-speed. They also matched with the rest of my outfit, which centered around the color black.

 _Huh, so the players I overheard in Urbus wasn't lying, the quest did actually have a rather decent reward…_ I thought to myself as I inspected my brand-new piece of equipment.

The EXP I had gained from both killing the mobs and completing the quest put me just below the requirement to reach Level 8, which was a slight confidence boost. Levelling up was one of the best parts of any MMO, and the feeling of physically growing stronger was nothing short of spectacular. After checking to see that there wasn't any other quests to be accepted at the farm, I started on the long journey back to Urbus. It was now 21.04 in the evening, meaning I had spent just under an hour finishing up the quest. Getting back to Urbus would take at least another 30 minutes, and once I got there, I had to find something to eat.

Eating was, without a sliver of a doubt, my favorite past-time activity in Sword Art Online. The game utilized something called a "Taste Reproduction Engine", which was nothing short of revolutionary. In the real world, the feeling of "eating something" was created by the combination of a bunch of different factors, like texture, aroma, taste and so forth. Recreating something like that in SAO would require huge amounts of data to be processed at all times, because the system would have to keep track of all of these factors for every individual meal currently present in the game world. So not only would it require an absolutely ludicrous amount of storage and processing power, it would also take years, if not decades, to implement. The "Taste Reproduction Engine" sidestepped all of these problems by instead combining pre-set data to recreate the taste of a singular meal. So, for instance, if the player was eating Spaghetti and Meatballs, the system would recognize that specific meal and select a preset that contained one particular taste, which had been specified ahead of time.

Now, as genius as this was, it wasn't without its downsides. The lack of a proper system, however extreme it would have to be, meant that it could sometimes be hard to distinguish between the sensation of eating for instance a cake and a piece of toast. The texture usually felt the same, which could be odd if you were to, for instance, eat ice cream and it had the same texture as the pasta you ate earlier. The taste was different, but the sensation widely the same. This was without a doubt due to system limitations, but still, it was something that could be rather odd at times.

* * *

The entire city of Urbus was constructed to look like it had been excavated from a flat-topped mountain, resting comfortably in its crater. Like all district settlements, Urbus had a main street, which ran from the north to the south, with the Teleport Gate located in an elevated Town Square in the middle of the city. The buildings were largely made up of smooth grey rock, and lanterns hanging from lampposts lit up the city at night. It was nowhere near as big as the Town of Beginnings, but it wasn't what one would consider a small city either.

As I made my way through its maze-like streets, I eventually came to a halt in front of a wooden door that was seemingly built into the stone wall. A lone lantern hung outside, illuminating the signpost right next to it. The sign showed a hammer being swung towards a sword, with the words "The Lone Blacksmith" written above it.

"The Lone Blacksmith" was an inn located on the western side of the city, far away from the bustling life of the main street. Only a few players even knew about its existence, much less the somewhat interesting quest one could pick up from the innkeeper. The quest itself didn't offer much in terms of Cor or EXP, but it did offer a rather… special reward. Upon completion, the innkeeper would gift the taker with a quite unique type of beer. Its name was "Honeyed Beer", and as the name implied, it was an incredibly sweet beverage. But that wasn't the only special property the unique item had. When drunk, the player would receive an absolutely massive buff to attack speed. Sadly, the buff only lasted for 30 minutes, but that alone could easily turn the tide of almost any battle. Needless to say, if the word of such an item existing ever reached the public ear, the inn would be flooded with players looking to complete the quest, so I made sure to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted.

As I opened the door leading into the inn, bright light flooded out onto the empty street behind me, momentarily blinding me. Nighttime in SAO could get incredibly dark at times, and without the Nightvision skill, one could easily have a hard time maneuvering around. Sadly, since we, the players, had currently only reached Floor 2, only a select few had chosen to use one of their few Skill Slots for such a (quite frankly) pointless skill.

As my vision gradually returned to me, I found the inn to be… oddly empty. One could usually find at least three or more players drinking at the bar or resting comfortably in one of the rocking chairs that were dotted throughout the tavern-space. Now though, I could only see one, sitting alone at the back of the room with a half-empty mug of beer in front of him. I tended to avoid social contact with other players (mostly just because I felt incredibly uncomfortable in most social situations), and tonight was no different. I headed for the staircase leading up to my rented room, but halfway there, I was interrupted by the lone player coughing in a manner that hinted that he wanted my attention.

I stopped, out of both curiosity and propriety, and gave the player a closer inspection. He wore a brown leather coat underneath an iron chestplate that obviously belonged in the Light-Armor class, with short, brown hair jutting up from his head. A slender one-handed sword rested in a scabbard on his back, and I spotted several throwing darts hanging in a strap from his waist.

 _He's used one of his Skill Slots for the Throwing skill, huh? An interesting choice… somewhat unorthodox, but definitely interesting…_

But there was one specific detail that stood out, a detail so special it couldn't possibly be missed: his right and left eye color didn't match. The left eye was a deep blue, whilst his right eye was dark crimson.

As I approached him, he raised his mug towards me, as if giving me an imaginary toast.

"Hey there bro, mind joining a lonely guy for a pint of beer?" he said with possibly the widest smile I had ever seen. I took a seat opposite of him, still unable to stop gazing at his eyes. He must've noticed, because he let out a small sigh, before dipping his head, breaking eye contact.

"Yes, I know, I know, weird eyes, 'amirite? But I would have you know, it is actually a perfectly normal… well, perhaps not normal, but definitely not dangerous, medical condition known as Heterochromia Iridum," he finished, looking back up at me with that same wide smile.

"Oh… um… I don't think it's weird! I just… ehh… well, I was just surprised, that's all," I retorted, shaking my head.

"Naah, don't worry about it man, everyone stares at them when they first meet me. I'm used to it by now. The name's Marco, by the way!" He stretched out his empty hand to greet me. I stared at it for a moment, before realizing he was looking for a handshake. Deciding that it would be rude to just leave him hanging, I shook it.

"Yeah… umm… I'm Kaz… Kirito … I'm Kirito." I almost told him my real name out of habit, before realizing my mistake and correcting it. My name wasn't Kazuto anymore. In this world, I was Kirito, and nothing more. Kazuto was dead and buried.

"Kirito, huh? Interesting name… Well, now that all of the formalities are out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks!" he said, gesturing for one of the NPC waitresses to come over. "But first, let's get you a beer. Don't worry, it's on me."

I almost shook my head in disagreement, before realizing that it would also be rude to decline a free beer, especially after he had offered it to me so freely. So, I simply nodded and stayed silent. After finishing the order for an extra beer, Marco diverted his attention back to me again.

"So, no doubt you must be very confused right about now," he started, folding his hands on the table. "As you might've already suspected, I didn't call you over here just for the sake of enjoying your company, as lovely as it might be."

I couldn't do much but nod, gesturing for him to continue.

"I'll be frank and cut straight to the chase; yesterday, I located the first Field Boss of this floor."

I raised an eyebrow in surprise, not quite sure what this had to do with me. Field Bosses were "mini bosses" scattered around a Floor that usually rewarded large amounts of EXP and Cor if taken down. Normally, if one happened to stumble across one of these, you would immediately report it to either one of the two big frontline guilds, the Aincrad Liberation Squad or the Dragon Knights Brigade, as they were currently the only Guilds with enough members and resources to take on such a formidable opponent.

"Erm… okay? Wh… why are you telling me this?" I asked, clearly confused. He simply stared at me, a wide grin covering his face. It took me a little while, but it finally struck me, like lightning from a clear sky. The thought of it alone made my eyes widen in shock.

"No… no you can't be serious…" I muttered, slowly shaking my head. Marco's eyes seemed to shine with a newfound intensity as it dawned on me just what he had in mind.

"But… But there's no way you can solo a Field Boss! It's simply not possible!" I said, still in utter disbelief. Marco let out a short chuckle before shaking his head.

"Hold your horses compadre, who said I was going to solo it? That would be suicide! No, you are going to help me, of course!" he stated, as if it was the most normal suggestion ever.

I was speechless. I didn't even know this guy, and now he wanted me to lay down my life for a suicide mission?

"But… Can't you see this is suicide?! There's no way the two of us are going to be able to take down a Field boss on our own!" I said, almost screaming at this point. Marco apparently found my little breakdown quite entertaining, because he laughed yet again, before emptying the last of his mug in one large swig. The NPC waitress chose that moment to return with my beer, and I had to restrain myself in order to act calm. After thanking her for her service, I took a huge swig of the beer. The bitter taste helped calm my nerves, despite there not being any alcohol in it what so ever. SAO had a strict no-alcohol rule, due to a rather big portion of the playerbase being underage.

"Not to worry though, I have a special weapon," Marco said, sending me a wink.

"What could possibly help us take down a Field Boss on our own?" I responded, staring down into my now half-empty mug of beer. Marco simply smiled, before leaning over the table, closer to me.

"An acquaintance of mine. Actually, two acquaintances. The first goes by the name of Klein, but you might know him better as the "red-headed katana-wielder" of the First Floor. And the second is Asuna, a fencer with unrivalled speed and attack power."

* * *

 **A/N: So by now, most of you should be able to see where I'm going with this. As you undoubtedly noticed, I chose to utilize a timeskip between the First and Second Floor, because I figured most of you are probably dead tired of reading about the same fight against Illfang the Kobold Lord as you have done many times before. I also chose for Kirito to not participate in the boss fight, in order to save the introduction of Asuna's character for the next chapter. I figured a change of pace would be nice.**

 **I won't be following what is considered "canon" as much in this story either. I want to write my own work that is separate from that of Kawahara's, and I reckon that following a completely different plotline is the best way of achieving this.**

 **Kirito's personality is also quite different from that of his anime counterpart, as I find Kirito in the anime to be quite boring to watch.**

 **As for Marco and OC characters, I won't be using as many of those moving forward either. Marco is pretty much the only one I will introduce for the time being, and we'll have to see what I decide to do in the future.**

 **If you enjoyed the read, please be sure to leave a review telling me what you think, as reading those honestly make my day.**

 **Aaand I think that's it, so I will see you guys in the next chapter.**

 **-Twisted**


	3. Chapter 3 - New Acquaintances

**A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.**

* * *

Letting out a heartfelt yawn, I stared out across the wide open savanna of the 2nd Floor as our little party of two made its way across the terrain. The peaceful atmosphere of a calm morning was only betrayed by the constant growling of the buffalo-type monsters that littered the landscape. A quick look at the upper right side of my field of view told me that it was currently 07.00 in the morning, which was way too early for my liking.

"Look, I get that you want to take on this Field Boss of yours, but did we really have to do it this early in the morning? It's not like it's gonna go anywhere…" I asked, stretching my arms over my head.

"No, I know that! I'm just afraid that if we wait for too long, other players are going to find it and kill it before we get to do it," Marco pointed out, nodding with that smug smile of his plastered on his face.

"Yeah right, like that's going to happen! You're the only one who's suicidal enough to try," I retorted matter-of-factly, shifting my attention away from him to scan our surroundings. Where in the world was this Field Boss anyway?

"That may be the case, but it's not like we are going to 1v1 this thing. We got my two buddies helping us out, remember?"

Klein. The infamous "katana-wielder". After the launch of Sword Art Online, a particular group of players quickly turned into the most hated part of the playerbase. The beta testers. Accused of leaving all of the new players behind, most testers decided to keep their status a secret, out of fear of what the other players would do to them if they found out. Player killing, as horrible as it was, still existed in SAO after all, despite being considered a direct crime by most of the players. Who in their right mind would want to purposefully stunt the progress of the game by killing one of their comrades after all? All that would serve to do is keep us trapped in here even longer, and God knows nobody wanted that to happen.

After the boss battle on Floor 1, the leader of the Aincrad Liberation Squad, a man named Kibaou, had called out a portion of his fellow raid members for being beta testers. The players, to everyone's great surprise, had simply laughed at his accusations, and told him that the beta testers weren't as evil as he imagined. This, of course, had only acted to further infuriate the guy, and he had promptly coined them "beaters", a combination of the words cheater and beater. This term had stuck around, and now, all beta testers were regarded as "beaters".

"How come you know this Klein guy anyway? Isn't he supposed an "evil" beta tester or something?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could, trying my best to brush it off as a casual question.

"Mostly by happenstance, to be honest. We ran across each other in Urbus whilst turning in the same quest, and kind of just hit it off. I quickly understood that the rumors surrounding them were wildly exaggerated, as he helped me locate a particularly tricky mob without me offering him anything in return. We partied up for a quest as well, and added each other to our Friends Lists afterwards".

To be honest, I wasn't too surprised. I had always found the other players' treatment of the beta testers wrong and uncalled for anyways, so to learn that one of the infamous "beaters" was actually a nice guy didn't exactly come as a shock. Why someone such as him had agreed to help Marco with his suicide mission, however, was confusing. Klein had to be at least somewhere amongst the top 10 when it came to the strongest players in the game, but you didn't get to be that strong by taking unnecessary risks.

As our little party ventured closer and closer to the mountains surrounding the savanna, I noticed that the monster population seemed to grow sparser with every step we took. The sound of growling got more and more distant, and before long, we were walking in complete silence. The terrain around us changed from a rolling savanna to that of highlands and rocks, with all signs of vegetation disappearing. We were in the mountain region now, where the mobs were stronger and the safety of Urbus further away.

As I watched the last remnants of the savanna disappear behind us, I felt a slight bubble of nervousness emerge from the pit of my stomach. We were on our own now. If we were to be caught by a pack of roaming monsters out here, nobody would come to our rescue. Marco must've noticed the look of concern on my face, because he sent me a comforting smile and gestured to the road ahead.

"Hey compadre, there's nothing to worry about. I've been here multiple times, so I know this area like the back of my hand. Nothing unexpected is going to jump out at us without me knowing it first".

As comforting as that was, it raised another question.

"Wait, if you've been out here before, why haven't you sold your map data for Cor in Urbus yet? There's a lot of cash to be made by selling information you know," I inquired, cocking my head ever so slightly to the right. Marco simply chuckled and kept on walking.

After hiking for well over an hour, we finally arrived at the location Marco had spotted the Field Boss in the day before. As we approached the location, a group of two players came out from behind a collection of rocks, one of them geared to the teeth with top-of-the-line armor and rare drops. I spotted " **Ashbringer** " (a two-handed sword in the katana class that was only dropped by the **Rock Golems** in the mountain region) and " **Breakers Chestplate** " (high-defense low-agility armor that could be purchased in Urbus for a big amount of Cor) amongst the gear they were wearing. This particular player stood out to me due to his spiky red hair pushed up by a bandana and the wide grin on his face.

"There you are. We've been waiting for you for nearly half an hour now!" the red-haired player I assumed to be Klein remarked, crossing his arms and leaning up against one of the rocks.

"Sorry, sorry! Would've loved to come sooner, but I had to get this lazy-ass out of bed!" Marco smirked back, gesturing towards me. Feeling slightly insulted, I rolled my eyes and gave his arm a light jab.

"Ahh, so that's the player you mentioned in your message," the red-haired one replied, before pushing himself off the rock and walking towards us. "Light armor, one-handed sword, no shield… Interesting playstyle, my friend".

As we came to a halt in front of the group, I took a moment to inspect the red-haired player. Apart from the high-end gear, he looked nothing like the "evil beater" I had imagined him to be. Not that I had any right to talk, most of the information I knew came from previous beta testers after all.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Kirito, and I'm guessing you are Klein?" I asked, giving him a slight nod.

"That's right. I'm Klein, and this is my friend, Asuna…" Klein answered, pointing towards the player wearing an old, rough-looking cloak standing in the back. The players' appearance didn't really reveal anything, but the name definitely did.

 _Asuna? A female name?_

The other player casually reached up and pulled down the hood covering her face, revealing long, chestnut hair and deep blue eyes. I was shocked to say the least, my eyes widening in surprise at the sight of her.

 _A female player in SAO? I mean, I always knew it was a possibility, I just haven't seen any yet… And she's hot too!_

Klein must've noticed me staring, because he let out an awkward cough which broke my trance. I immediately felt my face flushing a deep shade of crimson, and fixed my eyes on the ground instead.

"I'm… I'm sorry! I just… I haven't seen any female players in this game yet! Yes, I'm just surprised, that's all!" My embarrassment quickly shifted to great surprise as the chestnut-haired player suddenly burst out laughing. It was a sweet laugh, an innocent one filled with childlike glee, which warmed your insides. Laughter wasn't a common thing here. Not in the game of death. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd laughed.

"Don't worry about it, I get that a lot," the girl known as Asuna chuckled whilst brushing away a stray lock of hair out of her face. I could've sworn I saw Klein blushing ever so slightly at that, as if remembering some distant memory he'd rather forget.

"A… anyway, now that we are all here, how about we go over the plan on how we are going to kill this thing?" he proposed, switching the topic before Asuna got the chance to make fun of him.

"Sounds good to me," Marco nodded, opening up his inventory to check on his supplies.

"Because you do have a plan, right?"

"Of course I do! Who do you think I am, my dear Klein? My strategically superior mind thought of a plan the instant we arrived here!" I couldn't help but send him a skeptical look at that, as I really couldn't imagine Marco being what you would call a "strategic genius".

"Oh is that so? Then what is this "master plan" of yours?" Asuna chimed in, a slight smug visible on her face.

"We attack it with everything we've got and kill it. Then we split the loot and go home".

Almost everyone in our group, including me, let out a defeated sigh as Marco flashed us his signature grin.

"That's your plan? To just YOLO it and go all in?" Klein mumbled, scratching the back of his head.

"Yup, pretty much. And when one of us gets low on HP, we switch up our formation so that the wounded person gets placed at the back and has time to heal. Simple as that".

A moment of silence fell over our group as we contemplated Marco's "strategically superior" plan.

"You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I can't really think of any other way to tackle this," I sighed, admitting defeat.

"To be honest… me neither. We would need more information on the Field Boss in order to come up with a more proper plan anyways, and that's information we currently don't have," Asuna agreed, nodding her head as she opened her inventory.

"I'm in. Heck, we're all pretty high levelled after all so this shouldn't be too hard," Klein shrugged, pulling his katana out of its sheath and inspecting it.

"Alright, it's settled then! We'll attack the Field Boss with all of our combined might and (hopefully) make it out alive! Forwards, my trusty minions!" Marco grinned, pointing towards a small clearing further up the hill.

"This is suicide," Asuna stated calmly whilst walking past me.

I couldn't bring myself to disagree.

* * *

As our party of 4 made its way up the hill, I started to feel more and more worried. We didn't even know what the boss looked like, much less its attack patterns. What if something went wrong? What if one of us got unlucky and forgot to dodge an attack? What if the Field Boss could simply one-shot us, killing our avatars in an instant and frying our brains in the real world? Asuna must have noticed the worried look on my face, as she reached over and gently tapped me on the shoulder.

"You okay there? You look like you've seen a ghost".

"Yeah no I'm fine… I just… I'm just worried, that's all. As much as it may seem otherwise, I don't actually enjoy putting my life on the line," I replied, shaking my head ever so slightly.

"Hey, that's perfectly okay. None of us do. God knows I'd much rather be sitting behind the safety of the walls in the Town of Beginnings right now than be out here. I… ehh… actually did that at the start too. I was so afraid, I just couldn't bring myself to leave… But then something clicked in me, and I headed out to the First Floor dungeon and threw myself right into danger. I fought like an animal, taking little regard to my own safety. I guess you could say I snapped," Asuna mumbled, her otherwise beautiful features marred by the grimace that suddenly appeared on her face.

"But we can't do that. Because how are we ever going to get out of here if all we did was to sit and cower in fear? Or mindlessly throw our lives away? Who is going to progress through all of the Floors and beat the final boss, if not for us? I realized that, after a while, and stopped trying to kill myself. I decided to get strong instead, so I could fight for all those who couldn't. Because like it or not, we are all stuck in here together. Might as well make the best of it," she continued, smiling now, and gave my shoulder a light, but comforting, squeeze.

She was right, of course. I knew that. Nobody was coming to save us, that much was obvious at this point. We had no choice but to participate in Kayaba Akihiko's twisted game. But that didn't make it any less horrible.

"Hey so, you guys done being all emotional back there? The boss is right up ahead," Marco said, nodding towards a sharp turn in the road.

"Yeah, I'm… I'm good. Thanks, Asuna," I sighed, sending her a weak smile. She returned it with a smile of her own.

As we rounded the corner, we finally saw the clearing. And to our great surprise, it was completely empty.

"Hey Marco, didn't you say the boss was supposed to be here?" Klein asked whilst scanning over the empty space with his eyes.

"Y… yeah, it… it should be right here! I swear it was right here last time!" Marco answered, nodding violently.

As the others spread out to search the clearing, I tried to think of a reason why the monster had suddenly disappeared. There was always the possibility that other players had come through here and killed it, but something told me that wasn't likely. Marco had been here up until rather late last night, and surely nobody would've been foolish enough to attempt to kill a Field Boss in the pitch black darkness of the night?

As I stood there pondering, I felt a slight vibration shooting through my left leg. It was nothing major, just a tiny shiver crawling through my body, but it was enough for me to notice. And that's when it struck me.

I immediately knelt down and placed my hand against the cold, rock ground, waiting for any signs of activity. A couple of seconds passed with nothing happening. Then I felt it. That slight vibration, coming from somewhere deep underground.

"Uhhh, guys?" I cried, a worried look starting to creep its way onto my face. The others promptly turned around, staring at me in confusion.

"I think… I think it's below us!"

Just as I said that, the vibrations coming from the ground magnified in their strength, now feeling more like shockwaves rather than twitches. Everyone in our party stood completely still, as if movement would somehow cause the ground beneath us to crumble. And crumble it did.

Asuna was the first one to scream as the ground beneath her caved in. In an instant, the chestnut-haired fencer was gone, swallowed by the clearing itself.

"Asuna!" Klein shouted, rushing over to where she had been standing just moments earlier. That turned out to be a bad move, as the ground beneath him crumbled away too just as he reached the spot she had been standing in.

I watched in horror as my fellow party members all disappeared, falling down as the ground collapsed beneath them. Soon, I was the only player left in the clearing, but that wouldn't last long, as I could feel the ground under me beginning to shake violently.

 _Ahh you have got to be kidding me…_

And then I fell down.

* * *

Falling through what should have been solid ground was about as scary as it sounds. In an instant, all light disappeared, and all I could do was scream helplessly as my body was thrown against the rocky walls. Up in the left corner, I could see my health bar depleting rapidly, each sliver disappearing accompanied by a sudden rush of intense pain. Out of all the ways you could take damage in SAO, most players agreed that fall damage was the scariest one. You could be as strong as you wanted to, nothing would save you from the damage of a 50-foot drop onto solid ground.

Just as I thought I was done for, I spotted a tiny stream of light coming from somewhere below me, signaling that the tunnel was reaching an end. A very, very painful end. I hit the ground at what felt like mach 2 speed, the sudden impact sending waves of agony rippling through my body.

My mind in a haze, I slowly got up into a sitting position, letting out a groan as my legs protested. I was confused, scared, disoriented and in a lot of pain, but I was alive, with my health bar resting comfortably in the lower regions of the yellow zone. All around me, I heard the sounds of coughing and wheezing as my party members gradually picked themselves up. They too had thankfully survived the fall.

"I'm never taking on another Field Boss in my life, I swear to God," Klein coughed somewhere to my right.

"Tell me about it," Marco responded, his voice coming out as a raspy groan.

"Never mind that, where the hell are we?" Asuna's voice cut in, completely ignoring our complaints. I quickly scanned my surroundings, and was surprised to see that we were in what looked like a large, circular room, with one bright beam of sunlight flooding in through a hole in the middle. If I had to guess, I would've said that the space was at least a 100 meters wide when measured diagonally.

"Look at this place…" I muttered, awestruck by the thought of such a massive room existing directly beneath the clearing. It certainly looked like what I imagined a Boss Room would have. A huge open space that gradually got more and more spacious the closer you got to the center. Whatever Field Boss resided here would have to be enormous, at least if you were to judge its height by the distance from the floor to the roof.

"I… I suddenly have this eerie feeling…" I muttered, mostly to myself as I stared out over the vast canyon in front of me.

"Tell me about it…" Klein replied, a worried look plastered on his face. None of us felt comfortable here. Despite its size, the thought of fighting within an enclosed area such as this felt… restricting.

"Hey, can you guys see that?" Marco suddenly said, pointing his finger towards the opposite side of the room. As we all turned our attention to where he was pointing, I finally noticed what it was he was trying to show us. There was a shadowy silhouette crouched next to a huge rock on the opposite end, curiously peeking out over the edge. We must've caught its attention when we fell down.

"What… is that?" Asuna whispered, squinting her eyes in an attempt to see clearer. "A monster? … No, I don't see any red cursor… An NPC maybe?"

"No, that's… that's not what it is," I replied, also keeping my voice down. "That's definitely a… player…"

I let the sentence trail off as we all stared at the silhouette in complete silence. Then suddenly, the shadowy figure spoke up.

"Hey, are you guys just gonna stand there or what?"

As surprising as the sudden statement was, what was even MORE surprising was the light tone of the voice. It sounded like it belonged to a female.

"Uhm… Who are you?" Asuna shouted back, her head cocked ever so slightly to the left.

"Ahhh, that kind of personal information would usually cost ya… but I'll give this one to you free of charge! I'm Argo! Argo the Rat!"

* * *

Once we had all managed to make our way across the room to the other side, we finally got a better look at the mysterious player. The silhouette turned out to belong to a short, feline-like female with curly auburn hair. Her armor consisted solely of Light Class leather armor that covered her entire body, and it was obvious to anyone that had any sort of experience with MMOs that she was going for an Agility build. What was most surprising about her appearance, though, was that she had three distinct whiskers drawn on her face, further strengthening the cat-like vibes she gave off.

"As I said, I'm Argo the Rat, information dealer extraordinaire! But you can call me Argo. If you pay me 100 Cor, that is!"

Despite the suspicious circumstances surrounding her character, her upbeat tone of voice immediately deescalated any sort of tension that we might have felt. Her name, however, did ring a faint bell in my head…

"Wait a minute… you said your name was Argo… right?" I asked, desperately trying to grasp for what felt like a distant memory. That name… Where had I heard it before?

"That's right! Would never lie about my own name! Unless you paid me to of course!" she replied, shooting me a wide grin.

"Argo, Argo… Where have I… Ohhhh…" Something finally clicked in my head, and the memory fell into place. "Wait a minute here, you're Argo?! THE Argo?"

"Yes, sure am!"

"Umm, Kirito… what are you talking about?" Asuna asked, confusion dripping from her words.

"Oh, right, of course… You guys probably don't know who she is," I started, turning around to face my confused party members. "Argo the Rat is perhaps the most infamous information dealer in all of Aincrad. For the right price, she can provide information on just about anything and anyone, including information on Floor Bosses and quests that not a lot of people know about".

The group took a moment to digest this new piece of information, several of them looking at the petite girl with newfound respect.

"Yo!" she simply said, raising one hand in a greeting.

"But I never imagined you'd actually be a girl… Well, I don't know what I imagined to begin with, but definitely not… this…" I continued, trailing off as my thoughts drifted away.

"Have you heard about me before then?" Argo asked, twirling a strand of hair around one of her fingers.

"Well, I actually spoke with you back before… all of this… happened. Back when I hung out on the official forums and stuff. You always had a horde of people questioning you about information, if I remember correctly…"

"Ahh, yes, I remember now! My inbox got spammed with a bunch of questions all hours of the day back then! Took me ages every morning to reply to each one," she smiled, almost jumping up and down in excitement. Then she suddenly stopped, and put on a wondering look. "In fact, I remember one guy in particular that was extra interested in information regarding the beta test… Hmmm…" Locking me with a questioning glare, I couldn't help but feel a slight blush creep up my neck.

"Yeah… that would be me… I'm sorry, I was just… well, very curious, I guess you could say," I laughed in an attempt to hide my own discomfort. Being called out like that in front of everyone felt kind of embarrassing, even if it really wasn't.

"What's your name?" she asked, her look leaving me with no other option than answering her question. She was an information dealer after all, extracting information was a crucial part of the job.

"I'm Kirito," I responded, awkwardly scratching the back of my head with one hand. The reaction from Argo was instant.

"Kii-boy!" she shouted as she jumped in my arms, forcing me to catch her. Luckily enough, she wasn't very heavy, and my Strength skill was sufficiently high enough to carry her without much of a problem. The others, on the other hand, were shocked to say the least.

"Uhhh?!" Klein nearly screamed, taking a step back in surprise at the spectacle unfolding in front of him. Even Asuna looked mildly uncomfortable, her facial expression switching between shocked and embarrassed at the speed of light.

"I never thought I'd see you here!" Argo continued, laughing giddily as she clung to my neck.

"Ehrm… Kirito? Mind telling us what is going on?" Marco asked, his face an expressionless mask.

"Well, during our long conversations over the internet, me and Argo developed a… well, a really messed up friendship of sorts," I coughed, my mind racing to come up with an explanation that wouldn't make me die of shame. "She eventually started calling me Kii-boy, and she must've recognized me when I told her my nickname…"

"That's right! You're definitely Kii-boy, no doubt about it! Perhaps a little cuter than I imagined, though!"

"Ehhm… Thanks? I guess?"

"You're more than welcome!"

"Mind letting go now? Not that you are heavy or anything, but… well, it's kind of weird."

With a playful sigh, she finally let go of my neck and let herself drop out of my arms, landing in one swift, continuous motion. Her gracefulness was a joy to behold, and definitely recognizant of someone with incredibly high Agility stats.

"So, Argo, as surprising as it is to finally meet you in person," I said, dusting off my black leather coat. "What are you actually doing down here?"

"I'm here for the same reason you are, I reckon," the cat-like girl smiled, casually leaning up against the rock wall. "For information on the Field Boss".

"Ahh, so you knew about it too, huh?" Marco muttered, stroking his chin with one hand.

"Of course I did! I'm an information broker, you know. Knowing stuff is my business!"

"Either way, how did you end up down here if you were only after the Boss for scouting purposes?" I inquired.

"Well, when I came to the clearing where the Boss was supposed to be, it was completely empty. I figured someone else might've come through and killed it, but I decided to investigate anyway. That's when the ground crumbled away underneath me, and I fell down here".

Nodding my head, I remembered thinking the exact same thing when we arrived at the clearing. Despite it being empty, it just felt… too suspicious, in a way, to pass on without investigating.

"So you've been down here for how long?" Asuna chimed in, her eyes scanning the room with interest, despite there being nothing in here but stone.

"For about 20 minutes, if I had to guess," Argo responded, scrunching her face as she tried to collect her thoughts. "I think I've figured out the deal down here though."

"Oh, have you? Mind telling us? Cause I'm clueless," Klein said, fingering the sheathe of his katana.

"Thinking about it logically, the Boss probably spawns when you get close to the center of the room. In other words, don't go into the middle unless you wanna fight," she started, gesturing towards a tiny ray of sunlight that broke through the roof in what could only be the middle of the room.

"I decided that I would wait for other players to also fall down here, and join up with them to take the Boss down. Not like I had any other choice, though, seeing as there doesn't appear to be any other exits in this room".

Taking a quick look around me, I noticed that there were indeed no obvious ways out of here.

"But… that's hardly fair, right? Forcing us to fight the Boss just to get out of here is awfully cruel. What if someone just happened to fall down here by mistake? They would be forced to fight the Boss on their own, lest they risk dying of thirst or something down here," I pointed out, inwardly terrified at the idea of being stuck underground all by myself.

"Yeah, well, Kayaba doesn't exactly play fair, now does he?" Argo countered, smiling despite the rather dark nature of the argument. "I mean, I don't know about you, but forcing 30,000 players to play his game with no way to leave isn't really what I'd call "friendly behavior", especially not considering the very real fact that we can actually die in here."

The rest of us went silent at that, seeing as we didn't really have any counter-arguments to her statement. Sword Art Online was in no way a "willing commitment" anymore, and her words reminded us just how dark our situation really was.

"But now that you guys are here, we can take on the Field Boss together! And then we can get out of here!" she finished, her voice cheering up considerably.

"I guess she has a point," Marco shrugged, opening up his menu by swiping two fingers downwards in the air. "I'll send you a party invite, hang on a second."

Moments later, an additional health bar appeared underneath the previous ones, signaling that a new player had joined the party. Our grand total of members was now up to 5, and we were marginally better suited to take on the Field Boss.

"Alright, that settles it. Let's summon this Field Boss, kick his ass, and get the hell out of here!"

* * *

Our party carefully maneuvered its way across the empty room, towards the small ray of light protruding from the roof in the middle. Every single shred of my attention was directed solely towards the task at hand, my eyes darting nervously around the open space, scanning for any potential threats. The Field Boss could, in theory, appear at any given moment, and we had to be prepared to dodge if such a thing actually ended up happening.

"Okay guys, I'll trigger the spawn, you stand back and prepare yourself to get out of the way," Marco decided, gesturing for us to stop moving. Muscles tensed, we watched in silence as he carefully approached the middle. Turning back one last time to make sure we were all ready, he sent us a small wink before swiping his hand right through the ray of light, disturbing its natural trajectory.

For a couple of seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly, we heard it. A loud growling noise, coming from deep within the mountain itself.

"Prepare yourself!" I shouted, already heading back towards the nearest wall at a breakneck pace. A quick look back told me the others were doing the exact same thing.

Barely a moment later, the ground in the middle of the room cracked open with a loud bang, sending particles of rock and gravel flying in all directions. Then the floor seemed to cave in on itself, and out came the biggest lizard I had ever seen, fictional or not, in my entire life.

Spanning several dozen meters, the lizard stood up on its hind legs, letting out an ear-piercing shriek that seemed to shake the very foundations of the cave itself. When standing upright, it towered above us, its head nearly colliding with the roof.

"What the actual fuck is that thing?!" Klein shouted, already having drawn his katana out of its sheathe and pointing it towards the giant lizard in front of us.

"That, my friends, is the NEW Field Boss of the 2nd Floor!" Argo laughed, somehow managing to sound cheerful even in such a life-threatening situation.

 _They changed it from the beta?_ I immediately thought to myself, staring in awe at the monstrous creature in front of us. The lizard's skin was light brown, with large chunks of rocks attached to it in various places, no doubt acting as armor against Sword Skills and attacks. Its teeth protruded out of its mouth, like giant, rocky razors threatening to crush anyone and anything that came within its reach. Four health bars appeared above its head as it eyed us with great ferocity, including its name in a bold, highlighted font:

" **Krom the Rockcrawler"**

It was a downright terrifying thing to face, and I inwardly cursed myself for agreeing to participate in such a suicide mission in the first place.

"You see those rocky things attached to its skin? Those are armored points, they are resistant to attacks and will crush the durability of your weapons, so try aiming at exposed skin instead!" Argo shouted out, claws materializing on her hands.

 _So that's what she fights with._

Shrieking once again, the lizard suddenly darted forwards at surprising speed, heading straight for the tiny information broker. Lifting its massive arm, the monster threw itself towards her, aiming to cut her apart with its enormous claws. The feline-like player avoided the attack, however, by somersaulting directly beneath the approaching limb, coming out on the other side with a grin plastered on her face.

Seizing the opportunity, I shook myself out of the trance and ran straight towards the giant monster, raising my one-handed sword in preparation for a Sword Skill. Feeling the System Assist kicking in, I surrendered myself to its guidance, and let the Skill activate, cutting a deep blue line into the side of the lizards belly.

This served as a wake-up call to my other party members, who all honed in on the monster and unleashed Sword Skills of their own. This type of back and forth fighting continued for some time, with Argo pulling aggro and evading the attacks whilst we focused on dealing as much damage as we could to its weak spots. Since we didn't have any tanks, Argo was pretty much the only one keeping its attention so the rest of us were free to use our Skills. This put extra weight on her shoulders, of course, but the nimble little girl seemed to be doing just fine as she deftly dodged attack after attack, only suffering minor damage from the hellish onslaught.

When we finally managed to deplete the lizards' second health bar, it suddenly stopped moving completely, taking all of us by surprise. Standing there with its jaws wide open, we watched in suspense as the monster let out a high-pitched shriek that made our ears ring and our vision blurry. Right after the shriek ended, a small icon appeared over our health bars, indicating that we had all just received a debuff to our hearing.

Someone in our party tried to shout something, but it came out as nothing but a faded whisper to the rest of us. The debuff sure was effective.

Then, just when we thought things could not get any worse, we felt a fresh wave of tremors rolling through the ground beneath us, putting us all on edge as we desperately scanned our surroundings. All around us, smaller, almost miniature versions of the Field Boss started pouring out from fresh cracks in the walls, all of them accompanied by their own health bars. I counted twelve just off the top of my head.

Without saying a word, all of us immediately turned our attention away from the Field Boss and towards the new threat. The smaller mobs would have to be dealt with before we could go back to finishing off the now even more furious Krom. Sending her a pleading look, I made eye contact with Argo from across the room, and she instantly understood what it was I wanted from her. She had to keep the Field Boss's attention on her own whilst we fought off the smaller ones. It was a daunting task to be sure, but I wouldn't have looked to her if I didn't think she could manage it. Replying with that signature grin of hers, she returned her focus to the biggest threat in the room, the giant lizard, and made a show of baring her surprisingly sharp teeth in a display of anger and challenge.

 _This is going to be a tough fight._

* * *

 **A/N: And that brings us to the end of yet another chapter. I tried to keep a more light tone throughout this one, as the last chapter turned out rather dark and serious. I also introduced a plethora of new characters that are going to be playing vital roles in the story moving forward. I really do hope you like my portrayal of Argo the Rat in particular, as I find her hilariously fun to write and just a joy to interact with.**

 **Now that I have written and published two chapters spanning about 12k words within the span of a few days, I think I am going to be taking a short break as I divert my attention back to my other currently running fic, "Daemonis Magicka", to get some work done on that. Writing two fics at the same time has turned out to be a rather taxing experience, and I hope I can find a way to balance between them so that I don't get tired of writing before both stories have been brought to their conclusions.**

 **As always, if you enjoyed the read, please be sure to leave a review, as they help me out tremendously when it comes to correctly gauging the reaction to a specific chapter. Other than that though, I don't believe I have anything else to say.**

 **I'll see you guys in the next chapter.**

 **-Twisted**


	4. Chapter 4 - Krom the Rockcrawler

**A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.**

* * *

Killing off the smaller lizards turned out to be a lot harder than I had expected. The sly creatures kept ducking, dodging and weaving away from all of our attacks, only rushing in to bite us in the cooldown period that followed using a Sword Skill. My usually black coat was covered in spots of blood now, blood that belonged both to the monsters I had managed to slay and to myself. Despite being a virtual world, the lizards' bites still stung like a bitch, and bled equally as much. The blood would naturally disintegrate relatively fast, but why Kayaba had felt the need to implement a bleeding mechanic in the first place was beyond me.

Meanwhile, in the corner of my eye, I could see Argo's health bar gradually dropping lower and lower, before finally hitting the yellow zone.

"Guys, this isn't working!" I shouted out, deflecting a jumping lizard with the broadside of my sword.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock!" Marco responded somewhere to my right, equally as occupied with his own set of attackers. "But what do you want us to do?! They just… keep… coming…"

"I have an idea," Asuna piped up, finishing off her opponent with a flurry of quick jabs. She seemed to be having the least amount of trouble with this, at least compared to us. "If we form a circle and force _them_ to come to _us_ , one can pull the aggro whilst the other standing next to him can attack from the side."

"That…" Marco wheezed through gritted teeth, finally managing to cut the head off the lizard he had been fighting for the past two minutes. "Is actually a great idea and I wish I had thought of that myself."

"You're welcome," Asuna replied with a smile, working her way through the sea of mobs towards Klein and me. "Just get your ass over here."

It didn't take long before we were all standing back-to-back, facing the onslaught as a team instead of as individual fighters. The lizards responded to this by circling around us looking for openings, hunger and primal rage shining in their eyes.

"So what now?" Klein asked, swinging his katana in a threatening motion towards a lone lizard that dared venture a little too close to our group. "Are we just gonna stand here and wait for them to attack us?"

"Pretty much," Asuna chimed nonchalantly. "But if you have a better idea, feel free to speak up."

"Okay, we could totally do… ehh… we could like… hmm…" he stammered, desperately trying to come up with a better plan right there on the spot.

"We could what?"

"We could… Ahh, you know what, forget it. We'll go with your plan. Thinking never really was my strong suit."

Luckily enough for us, it didn't take very long before Asuna's plan started to produce some results. The lizards had apparently grown tired of waiting at this point, and one of them decided to take his chances and throw himself at us. Needless to say, he didn't get very far. As soon as he got close to Marco, Klein stepped in from the side and impaled him on the tip of his katana, effectively turning the poor creature into a rather grotesque form of kebab.

"Hey, that actually worked…" Klein muttered, genuine surprise coloring his features.

"Of course it worked, it was my plan," Asuna grunted back, pushing another lizard off her just in time for me to step in and deliver a finishing blow.

"Uhhm guys, not to be a total party pooper or anything, but could you perhaps speed things up a little? I'm kinda dying over here!" Argo suddenly shouted, drawing our attention towards her instead. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the condition she was in.

There were streaks of blood running down her cheeks, and I spotted several gaping wounds marring her otherwise slender body. Her left eye had swollen shut, and most of her armor had been destroyed or ripped apart. A huge claw mark went across her forehead, dripping blood into her eyes every now and then.

A quick look at her health bar told me she was about to enter the red zone, which signalized a clear need to switch her out of combat so she could heal.

"Asuna, switch with her!" I shouted out after having done some quick calculations at the top of my head. "You're the player with the highest Agility stats after Argo! Grab the boss's attention for as long as you can, we'll help you out when we're done with these!"

"Got it!" she replied; already well on her way towards the grievously wounded information dealer.

Sadly, she didn't get very far.

The Field Boss had apparently grown tired of being kited around the arena like some sort of puppy, as he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and stood up on his hind legs. Judging it to be yet another sound attack, all of us instantly covered our ears to prevent the debuff. But to our great surprise, that was exactly what the Boss wanted us to do.

As soon as we had our hands over our ears, the giant lizard shot back into motion, heading straight for Asuna with newfound fury. Before the poor girl even had a chance to react, an enormous claw shot out and connected with her lower torso, sending her flying towards a nearby wall and taking a big chunk out of her health bar. A deafening crash and the sound of broken bones filled our eardrums as her frail body smashed ruthlessly into the hard stone, the impact causing huge cracks to shoot out across the wall.

For a moment, nothing happened. We were all frozen still by the shock of seeing one of our comrades so brutally maimed. Then Marco suddenly spoke up.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Asuna!"

His shout served as a wake up call to the rest of us, and barely a second later, we were all rushing towards her unmoving body. Even Argo, who only had about 15 percent of her health left, was coming to help.

"Klein, Marco, form a circle around us and keep the lizards at bay! We'll check on Asuna!" I yelled, my brain going into overdrive as my adrenaline levels spiked. It was kind of surprising, to be honest. In real life, I had never been much of a leader. I had always tended to say as little as possible, remain as hidden as I could. But faced with a life-or-death scenario, my insecurities seemed to fly straight out the window.

With synchronized movements, my comrades followed my commands with robot-like precision, as if the notion of taking orders had been ingrained in their skulls since childbirth. It all just sort of… clicked. Everyone knew what they needed to do. What the group required of them.

Klein and Marco took up positions, standing shoulder to shoulder, fighting off waves of mobs as we knelt down and tried to wake up Asuna. She was unresponsive.

 _Dammit, just what we fucking needed. An unconscious party member,_ I thought to myself as I watched Argo desperately trying to shake Asuna back to life. _How the hell are we supposed to make it out of here now? Think, Kirito, think…_

Surveying my surroundings, I suddenly spotted something that I had previously overlooked about the arena. There were stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. And they were hanging low enough for someone to potentially knock them down.

 _You have got to be kidding me… How didn't I notice that before now?!_

"Argo, look!" I said, pointing towards the low-hanging rocky spikes. "See those stalagmites? They are conveniently placed, aren't they?"

A brief smile flashed across her lips as her eyes followed my finger to where the rocks were, her entire stance shifting ever so slightly.

"Right you are, Kii-boy! Want me to knock them down for you?" she asked, already opening her inventory to grab a health potion.

"Very much so," I responded, readying my sword to unleash a Sword Skill.

"Alright, just give me the word and…"

Before she even managed to finish her sentence, I activated my 4-part combo skill, " **Whirling Tornado** ", and let the System Assist guide me towards the nearest enemy. The attack took the unsuspecting lizard by complete surprise, resulting in me cleaving straight through it with the first swing, and finishing off two others behind it with the last three.

"NOW!"

Argo darted forwards without pause, rushing straight towards me with a wide grin plastered on her face. Getting down on one knee, I let Argo use my back as a springboard, pushing upwards at the exact moment her foot connected with my torso. The tiny girl flew through the air with impressive finesse, her trajectory lining up perfectly with the nearest stalagmite. But instead of just kicking it down, like I had suspected she would, she pointed one of her claws at it, and activated an unknown Sword Skill.

The claw suddenly detached from her hand, and automatically shot forwards like an arrow. The speed was so intense that it actually cleaved straight through the current rock, and continued on to knock down two other stalagmites behind it as well. The Skill finally ended with a flash of blue light, signalizing an item reaching the end of its durability and breaking apart.

The first stalagmite to fall hit empty ground, and did no damage. But the second one landed smack in the middle of the lizard group, instantly killing three and injuring one. And finally, the last stalagmite connected directly with the Field Boss's head, puncturing the skull and burying itself deep into the creature's brain. Needless to say, the giant lizard was dead before it even had a chance to register what was happening.

We watched in awe as Krom the Rockcrawler broke apart into a million tiny fragments, and a trumpet sound filled the cave.

 **CONGRATULATIONS!**

A collective sigh went through our party as we fell to our knees in exhaustion.

 _We made it. We didn't die._

"That…" Klein started, leaning on his katana for support. "Was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

"Yeah, note to self: don't try to kill Field Bosses with only one party. The only reason we're still alive right now is because we're at Floor 2. Once we get higher up, the monsters get a lot tougher," Marco added, sheathing his sword and wiping the sweat from his forehead. It was actually impressive that sweat even was a thing in this world. The amount of data required to simulate realistic water physics must be huge. Who in their right mind would waste precious computing power by implementing a sweating mechanic?

"I told you it was a bad idea," I chimed in, shaking my head in exasperation.

"But hey, we made it out okay, didn't we?" Marco smiled.

"Yeah, but just barely…"

"…"

"No point in crying over spilled milk boys, what's done is done!" Argo suddenly said, walking over to us after force-feeding Asuna's unconscious body with a health potion. "The only thing you can do is accept it and move on. Now though, it's time for everyone's favorite part of any MMO: checking out the loot."

"Ohhh, good point…" I mumbled, hastily bringing up the rewards window. A quick look at the specifics told me I had received an impressive amount of Cor, combined with enough EXP to push me all the way to Level 9.

 _Only a few more levels and I should be strong enough to take on the Floor Boss…_

"Did anyone get any sick drops?" Marco asked, scrolling through his rewards with a disappointed look on his face. "I didn't get anything..."

"Me neither," Klein sighed, closing his window.

"Nothing here," I added.

"I did!" Argo yelled, equipping her new piece of equipment at light speed. It was a relatively short, brown leather cloak, with what appeared to be small chiseled rocks sewn into the material. "It's called " _ **Krom's Gift**_ " and gives me a significant buff to Agility and Defense! Just what I need!"

"Aww man, lucky you… I didn't get squat," Marco mumbled, kicking away a stray rock with his feet in a show of childish petulance.

"Hey, no need to be mad about it! There's always next time!"

"That… really doesn't make me feel any better about it, but thanks? I guess?"

"You're welcome!"

"Still though," I interjected, cutting off their conversation. "We need to find a way out of here. I dunno about you, but I don't particularly feel like being stuck down here until we eventually die of starvation…"

"Kii-boy has a point!" Argo smiled. "Now that the Boss is dead, an exit should have appeared somewhere in this room. All we gotta do now is find it!"

And so we spread out, searching every nook and cranny of the room for signs of an exit, until we at last rendezvoused in the middle of the chamber again.

"Did anyone find anything?" I asked, stroking my chin in contemplation like I had seen the hero character do in movies a thousand times over.

"Nope, nothing here."

"Didn't find anything."

"I came up short as well."

"Well that's just perfect…"

A moment of silence passed then, with all of us trying our hardest to think of a solution to our little problem.

"I mean, the answer is probably something incredibly obvious, and we're just too stupid to think of it," Argo sighed, stretching her arms over her head.

"Hmmm…"

Taking one last look around, I suddenly noticed something that I (in hindsight) probably shouldn't have been able to miss. The lone ray of sunlight was back, shining through the hole in the roof.

"Hey guys…" I started, leaving our little circle to walk towards the beam. My companions all turned around with confused looks on their faces to see what it was I was doing. "I think I might have an idea…"

The others watched in silence as I slowly approached the ray of sunlight, my right hand outstretched in front of me.

Taking a deep breath, I let my instincts guide me, and thrust my hand right into the trajectory of the beam. The second it was exposed to the light, a loud banging sound erupted from somewhere behind me.

We didn't even have to turn around to know what had happened.

A door had appeared. Our way out.

* * *

 **Town of Urbus, Floor 2**

It was already late into the evening hours by the time we finally made it through the gates of Urbus. The trek back had taken significantly longer than any of us had anticipated, with our party being attacked by wild monsters pretty much every 20 meters. The spawn rate for mobs was drastically higher during the night, after all, resulting in twice the amount of encounters. But luckily enough, due to the EXP boost we got from killing the Field Boss, all of us were higher levelled than the monsters, and thus we made short progress of them.

"Damn, I am beat…" Marco puffed, leaning over to catch his breath once the "Safe Zone" notification appeared on our HUDs. "Great work today, everyone."

"Remind me to never go along with any of your plans ever again," I sighed back, opening up my menu to sort through my inventory. "That battle was a little too close for comfort. Next time we might not get so lucky."

"Ahh, come on, Kirito! Don't be such a buzzkill! We made it out, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters!"

"Hey, I'm just saying that we should probably try to be more careful in the future. We only get one shot at this whole thing, after all…"

The mood darkened considerably at that, and a pang of guilt flooded through me. I didn't want to be the one who constantly dragged the others down with my negative attitude.

"Anyway…" I said in an attempt to switch topics. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. I need to get some food and catch some sleep, so I guess I will see you guys… later?"

To be honest, I wasn't really sure **if** I was going to see them later. Our plan had been to meet up to take down the Field Boss, and now that that was over and done with, there wasn't a huge reason for us to stick together anymore. Despite the obvious safety benefits of playing as a group and the whole "you die in the game, you die in real life" thing, SAO was still an MMO at its core, meaning that competition was a natural part of it. Everybody wanted to get the best gear and rarest drops to ensure their own survival, and that got considerably harder the more people you had in your group. More manpower also meant more competition for the same loot, and when everyone wanted a piece of the action, it could be hard to figure out who deserved what gear and why. Most Guilds solved this issue by simply stating that "whoever gets the drop, keeps it", essentially choosing to utilize a traditional finders-keepers system, but that wouldn't really be the optimal solution in a party where 2 out of 5 members were frontliners (people ahead of the curve in terms of levels and equipment) that needed constant upgrades to keep up with the rest of their peers.

"Good idea, Kii-boy! I could really use a good night's rest right about now! But we should probably add each other to our Friends Lists first, so that our messages carry across all Floors and not just the current one," Argo smiled, leaning from side to side to stretch out her back.

A round of approving nods surged through our little group, and before long, we had all added each other as Friends. The Relationship System in SAO pretty much required you to add those you would like to keep in contact with to your friends list if you wanted to message them. The system basically "placed" your relationship with your fellow players into one of four different stages: strangers, friends, guild comrades and married. If you were classified as "strangers" by the system, you could not see each other's name and level, and only send each other messages of short length that did not go across Floors (the message would only be received by the recipient if the player was on the same Floor as the sender). If you were classified as "Friends", on the other hand, most of these restrictions disappeared, and you could also see each other's location on the map.

Guild comrades were pretty much the same as being Friends, just with the added benefit of a slight increase to your stats, and a shared Guild inventory. Married on the other hand… well, as far as I knew, nobody had even gotten married yet, so it was kind of hard to tell. Considering the huge difference in male to female player numbers, I had a sinking feeling nobody would be getting married anytime soon at least.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I could really do with a beer right about now," Klein smirked, probably already imagining the taste and sensation in his head.

"I don't get why you would want something like that though. As far as I know, you can't actually get drunk in SAO, right?" Asuna asked, furrowing her brows in thought. "And it's not like beer is known for its great taste…"

"Well, no, you can't get drunk, but I still find the act of cracking open a cold one calming. Back in the real world, I used to be… somewhat of an alcoholic, you see, and still being able to enjoy a cold beer in this world has really helped me accept it more… somehow," Klein muttered, none of us really surprised at the news that he used to be a drunkard. He just sort of gave off that vibe, with his wacky, unkept hair and stubbly beard.

"Huh… Well, I guess I can understand that…" I sighed in response, shooting a quick look up at the digital watch in the top right corner of my field of view. It showed the number 22.35, indicating that it was indeed quite late in the evening.

"Anyhow, we should probably disband the group for now," Marco said, opening up his menu and maneuvering to the Group tab. "We're probably going to run into one another soon enough anyway, considering that we're all stuck on the same Floor."

"True that," Klein grunted, running a hand through his red hair. "Plus, I imagine we'll all be present for the raid on the Floor Boss, once the Labyrinth here has been conquered."

"Well, considering all the EXP we got from slaying that Field Boss, I reckon most of us are already at a decent enough level to be able to take part in it," I agreed, inwardly shuddering at the thought of having to participate in such an event. The idea of facing off against the toughest enemy of the Floor was rather terrifying, after all.

"My thoughts exactly," Klein responded, turning to face me as he talked. "It would be kind of a dick move of us to take all of the resources from the Field Boss for ourselves without using some of it to help the other players with the big baddy of this Floor."

"I suppose you are right," Asuna nodded, her chestnut hair swaying slightly in the wind as she did so. "I helped out last time, so I might as well help out this time as well."

"Good to hear. Well, I'm gonna head off now. I'll see you guys later," Klein finally said, spinning around on his heels and walking away from our little group. It was actually kind of sad to see him go, as I had gotten used to the thought of being in a party with him. His witty, dry humor really brightened up the mood, after all.

"I'll follow his lead and head off too then," Marco smiled, waving us goodbye as he disappeared into the silent streets of Urbus.

"Seeing as everyone is leaving, I guess I better leave as well. Nice meeting ya in real life, Kii-boy!" Argo piped, already well on her way towards the nearest tavern. That only left me and Asuna, standing alone in the empty square.

"Well…" I finally coughed after a couple of seconds of awkward silence. "I think I'm gonna head off and find myself something to eat then. I'm positively famished after that little excursion."

"Oh, that sounds nice… Mind if I tag along?" Asuna replied, shifting her head ever so slightly to the right. "I'm not totally familiar with the layout of this town yet, but you seem to know your way around."

The question took me by complete surprise and left me at a loss for words. She wanted to… join me? To find something to eat? Just the two of us? Alone?

"Ehhh… uhh… yeah, I guess. Feel free to come along… if you want to, that is."

"Thanks."

Seeing her smile beaming at me, I had little choice but to accept her request to tag along and bring her with me. And so the two of us set off towards the center of town, with me leading the way.

* * *

"Wow, this place looks really fancy!" Asuna gasped as she inspected the restaurant I had stopped in front of. "No wonder you wanted to come here."

"Yeah, I suppose it is a beautiful place," I admitted, taking a moment to appreciate the delicate architecture of the building. Like most buildings in Urbus, it was made out of the same grey rock material that was commonly found in these mountains, but what set this particular building apart from the rest was that this one had been carefully decorated with wooden signs and beautiful rock carvings. Great care and dedication had gone into making the place look as charming as possible, the sight of it significantly more pleasing to the eye than the rest of the city.

"Let's go inside, shall we?" I offered, walking up to the door and holding it open for Asuna. Despite my background as an anti-social shut-in, I had played enough dating sims to know that you were supposed to do stuff like this for girls if you wanted them to like you. The act didn't go unnoticed either, as Asuna sent me a warm smile as she walked past me into the building.

 _Hey, maybe this won't be so bad after all_ , I thought to myself as I closed the door behind me, following her into the warm light of the restaurant.

* * *

 **A/N: Read and review!**


	5. Chapter 5 - A Shocking Revelation

**A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.**

* * *

 **Floor 2 – "The Taurus's Hammer" - Town of Urbus**

The restaurant I had taken us to was one of my favorites on this floor. It was called "The Taurus's Hammer" and featured an extensive menu that included dishes such as Farfalle with Yogurt and Zucchini and Quinoa Enchilada Casserole. Its interior was tastefully decorated with mahogany furniture and candle-lit tabletops, giving it a cabin-esque and cozy feel.

After Sword Art Online went from being a fun and amazing experience to a horrifying game of death, one of the few things that had helped keep me sane was food. One of the few benefits to living in a virtual reality was that no matter how much food you ate, your physical shape and form would never change. In other words, it was literally impossible to get fat. This meant that you could, in theory, stuff your face with as much food as you could afford, and never turn overweight.

And, as if that wasn't enough, most restaurants were dirt-cheap compared to the real world, with only the most extensive of meals costing more than 100 to 500 Cor. The waiting time in said restaurants were great as well, as the NPC chefs all had their Cooking skill maxed out, allowing for lightning speed preparation of the meals.

Following Asuna deeper into the restaurant, I was surprised to see more than a few other players spread out across the room. When I had first eaten here after arriving at the Second Floor for the first time, the place had been completely empty. But that certainly wasn't the case anymore.

"This seems like a good spot," Asuna suddenly piped up, stopping in front of a table in the northwest corner of the room. It was nothing special, just a simple wooden construction with a grey and black tablecloth covering its surface, but it still had a certain rustic charm over it.

Getting seated at the table, it didn't take long for an NPC waitress to approach us, asking for our order.

"Hmm… I'll have the… Spinach Tortellini Chicken Salad with a bowl of… fried potatoes as a side," I answered, maneuvering my way through the menu with ease, seeing as I had been here multiple times before and already knew what I liked and didn't like.

"Noted. And what about you, Miss?" the NPC nodded, turning to face Asuna instead.

"Hmm, I don't know… What do you suggest, Kirito?"

"Hm? Oh… you're asking me for a recommendation? Are you sure?" I hesitated, shooting the menu a skeptical look.

"You said this was your favorite restaurant, so who better to tell me what to get and what to avoid," she retorted matter-of-factly, her eyes reflecting the light of the candle in front of us.

"Ahh, I suppose you have a point… Well then, what to choose… Hmm… Perhaps this one?" I muttered to myself, racing through the different options at mach 2 speed. It was surprisingly hard to choose now that I was no longer picking only for myself.

"Yes, okay, she will have the… Prosciutto Pasta Chicken Skillet with a side of sweet potato fries."

"Noted. Your estimated wait time is… 7 minutes. Thanks for eating with us at "The Taurus's Hammer"!"

Speeding away just as quickly as she had arrived, the NPC waitress headed for the kitchen to pass our orders along to the chefs. Meanwhile, I was left alone at the table with a female girl (that wasn't my sister) for the first time in years.

"Uhh… so…" I awkwardly started, not quite sure where to look. "Nice place, right?"

 _God damn I'm such an idiot._

"Yeah, I like it! It's simplistic, but carries with it a certain charm. I'm definitely going to be eating here more often," Asuna replied, her eyes scanning the interior with newfound interest.

"Ahh… that's good to hear. I'm not gonna lie, I… got a little nervous when you said you'd join me. I'm used to only looking out for myself, after all…" I continued, scratching the back of my head as I tried to calm down my beating heart.

"Oh yeah, I could totally tell," Asuna laughed in response, instantly shutting down my train of thought.

"Wait… you knew?!"

"Yeah. I mean, it WAS pretty obvious," she smiled, looking rather satisfied with herself. "You did kinda… I don't know, visibly recoil when I asked to join you."

Letting out a nervous sigh, I met her eyes with my own in a display of fake confidence, inwardly freaking out at my own ignorance. Was I really that bad around women?

"Well excuse me for not exactly being the personification of bravery itself," I half-heartedly joked, putting up a semi-petulant face as I talked. "I am, after all, enough of a hardcore gamer to be stuck in this world in the first place, so that fact alone should speak miles about my social abilities. Plus, it's not like this game has a Charisma stat I can grind."

Laughing at my sarcasm, Asuna shook her head in a reassuring manner before answering my snarky comment.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I am not accusing you of anything here. In fact, I thought it was a little cute."

"Huuuuh?"

My mind grinding to a halt as her words registered in my brain, I absentmindedly let slip a non-intelligible sound in response to her statement. She thought my nervousness was cute? She found insecurity in guys CUTE?! SHE FOUND **ME** CUTE?!

 _I NEED TO MARRY THIS WOMAN._

Asuna, however, simply kept on giggling as I fought an internal battle to regain control over my own thoughts.

"A… anyways… How come a girl like you ended up in a situation like this? Forgive me for being blunt, but you don't strike me as the type of person to spend hours of your life playing video games and min-maxing characters in MMOs?"

Choosing to distance myself from the part of me that was imagining my future life with this woman, I decided to try my luck at getting an answer to the one burning question that had been haunting my mind ever since I ran into this girl earlier today. Just how was it that a "chick" like her was stuck in a game like this?

"Riiiight, I guess that was bound to come up at some point," she sighed, drawing her mouth into a strict line. "Well, I suppose you could say that it was a cruel twist of fate. I wasn't actually planning on playing SAO at all, to begin with. I hardly knew what it was when I first put on the NerveGear."

"Oh? Then… how come you are here right now?"

"That's… actually my brother's fault. He had been talking about the game non-stop leading up to its release, and how excited he was to finally try out a proper VRMMO. I didn't personally understand WHY he was so over the moon about it, but I could tell that it was something that mattered a lot to him. Sadly, once release day finally came around, he was dragged in for work and couldn't play. So, seeing as I had nothing better to do at the time, and with the future of VR technology literally laying right there on his bed, I decided to take a shot at it and plugged myself into his NerveGear… Oh, if only I had known…"

Putting on a pained smile, she tried to keep her tone light and cheerful, but the heaviness of her words betrayed the true feelings behind the façade. Not that I could blame her for that. I was a gamer to begin with, and even I regretted putting on the NerveGear that fateful Friday afternoon.

"Ahh… So you took his spot in the game out of curiosity then," I finally muttered after a minute of silence, thinking back to my own experience on launch day.

"Yeah, pretty much… It was… bad. The first couple of days, I mean. I kinda… shut down, I think. I dunno, I can't remember it all too well, despite it happening only a couple of weeks ago. The notion of being stuck in this world I knew nothing about… it was just too much for me. My brain couldn't handle it, I guess…"

The silence returned, only to be broken by me yet again only moments later.

"So… what changed? What made you snap out of it?"

"Oh… Klein did."

"Klein?"

"Yeah, Klein. I was walking down the streets of the Town of Beginnings one day, and just so happened to overhear him talking to some of his friends about a quest he wanted to do that would take them outside of the city walls. It was obvious even to an unexperienced player like myself that he had no idea what he was talking about, as he constantly contradicted himself and kept getting the details wrong, but the way he spoke… It was just so… full of confidence. Like he was 100 percent convinced that he wasn't going to die. That everything was going to be okay."

"Wow…" I breathed in response, inwardly a little jealous of Klein for managing to pull Asuna's attention so thoroughly with his extreme confidence and backwards knowledge of the game.

"Yeah, it was just what I needed at the time. For someone to tell me that it was going to be all right… For someone to be strong for me. So I approached him and his group, and asked if I could join. At first, they were surprised, but ultimately I ended up joining their group. And since then, I've been friends with all of them."

"That… sounds pretty great, actually," I sighed, leaning back in my chair and looking up at the rocky ceiling. "I only wish I had met you guys sooner. I was in a dark place for a long time myself, until I met Marco. His carefree attitude and complete lack of regard for his own safety kinda just… pulled me out of my hole, I guess."

Chuckling at my description of Marco, Asuna brushed back a stray lock of hair before opening her mouth to speak. But, to our surprise, she was interrupted by the NPC waitress returning with our food. In the midst of our conversation, we had completely forgotten about the fact that we were at a restaurant, and that we had even ordered food in the first place.

"Oh…Thanks a lot," I said, nodding courteously to the NPC as she placed the dish I had ordered on the table in front of me. "My compliments to the chef, as always."

"This looks absolutely delicious!" Asuna gasped, prodding the pasta on her plate with a fork. "I love Italian food! Thanks for the recommendation, Kirito."

"Any time."

We ate our food mostly in silence, savoring the taste and enjoying the presence of each other's company. It was moments like these that made it all worth it. Those moments when you got to just sit down and enjoy a nice meal in a fantasy world of swords and monsters. It wasn't every day you got to go from slaying a mythological beast at two o'clock to eating a warm meal at eleven, after all.

Once we had finished our meals, we paid for our food at the counter and headed out into the cold streets of Urbus. The watch in the top right corner of my field of view displayed the numbers 00.41, indicating that it was well past midnight. Somehow, we had spent almost two hours in that restaurant, just enjoying our meal and talking to each other.

"Well, I think it's about time we split up for the evening. It's almost 1 o'clock, and I've got an early day tomorrow. I have this quest in my quest log that I've been dying to finish for the past couple of days, you see," I yawned, stretching my hands over my head as I talked.

"Understandable. So I guess this is where we say good bye then, at least for now," Asuna responded, already opening her menu to pull up a map of the town. She was no doubt planning her route back to her inn, and considering her earlier statement of not being totally familiar with the layout of the town yet, it made sense that she would use the map to find her way.

"Yeah. Good night, Asuna. I… had a good time tonight. I hope we get to do this again some day.!

"Aww, thanks. I had a great time as well! I'll be sure to contact you if I'm ever in the area! You're in my Friends List now, after all," she smiled in return.

"Totally. Alright, see you later then!"

"See you!"

Turning away from her and towards the inn I was renting a room at, a singular thought occupied my mind as I walked through the now deserted streets of the town of Urbus:

 _Goddammit, friendzoned again._

* * *

 **Floor 2 – Second Floor Labyrinth**

Using the broadside of my sword as a shield, I deflected the **Humanoid Taurus** 's hammer to the side, a shower of sparks erupting from the blow. Utilizing the narrow recovery period that followed every NPC's attack to my advantage, I allowed myself to slip into the System Assist, unleashing a two-hit Sword Skill that cleaved the monsters' arm straight from its torso. With blood spurting out from where its arm had once been, the Taurus let out an ear-piercing howl of pain before bowing down to charge at me with its horns. Unlucky for the Taurus, though, I had already predicted this attack to be the next move, and simply side-stepped my way out of the charge zone before slashing my sword across its back as it came running past me. That turned out to be the killing blow too, as the monsters' body exploded into thousands of tiny fragments, floating through the wind before disappearing forever.

 _Whew… 10 down, only 5 more to go…_ I thought to myself as I took a look at the floating rewards window that had appeared where the monster used to be. 102 Cor, huh? That wasn't too bad, considering the fact that that we were still on the Second Floor of Aincrad where the mobs weren't too hard to beat.

 _If I keep this up, I might just be able to afford that new leather coat I've been eyeing at the Tailor Shop…_

I wasn't allowed to ponder over this for long, however, as a second **Humanoid Taurus** spawned in right behind me, immediately pulling aggro. Letting out a sigh, I turned around to face my new enemy, a newfound sense of determination radiating throughout me.

It had been a couple of days since my dinner date with Asuna (okay so it probably wasn't a date, but I liked to refer to it that way) and since then, a lot of things had happened. I had hit Level 10, finished up most of the quests surrounding Urbus and its neighboring village Marome, and headed into the Second Floor Labyrinth. The Clearers had made good progress on it by now, and most expected that it was only a matter of time before the Boss Room was found. Despite contributing to the clearing process, I didn't consider myself to be a part of the frontline group. I rarely partied up with others, after all, and chose to stick mostly to myself as I worked my way through the lower levels of the labyrinth. It was tough work, having no one to pull aggro and Switch with, but I actually preferred it that way. Combat was easier to handle when you only had yourself to look out for.

Slashing open the second Taurus' throat, I watched with detached interest as the monsters' body dissolved into fragments, absentmindedly noting the rewards I got for defeating it. These Taurus's were getting easier and easier to beat now, as my experience in dealing with them grew with each fight. They had rather predictable attack patterns, and low amounts of hit points. Sure, getting pummeled by their hammers DID hurt like a bitch, but the pain would quickly fade as long as you didn't allow yourself to be hit multiple times in the same spot.

Just as I was finishing off the last of the 5 **Humanoid Taurus** 's for my quest, I heard a foreign sound coming from somewhere up ahead. At first, I couldn't quite place it, but once the sound returned for a second time, I realized what it was: a scream. Now normally, I would've just brushed this off as the sound of other players engaged in a fight with a monster, but something about the way he screamed made me reconsider. It didn't sound like the battle cry of a player victoriously finishing off his enemy. It sounded like the scream of someone on the brink of death, crying out in genuine fear.

Hurrying down the pathway, I followed the sound of screaming further into the labyrinth. It didn't take me long to arrive at the origin point, and after rounding a corner, I saw something that shocked me down to my very core.

The screaming was coming from a player. But said player wasn't fighting monsters. He was fighting another player.

My mind kicking into overdrive, I tried to make sense of the situation in front of me. Two players fighting? But why? There wasn't any Duel notification floating in the air, meaning that it was a World PvP fight not controlled by the system. This wasn't a match that had been pre-arranged. The two players were genuinely trying to kill each other.

Shooting a quick look at the screaming players' opposition, my heart skipped a beat as I noticed the color of his cursor. It was red. Meaning that the other player (the one who wasn't screaming) had already killed someone. And that this guy (the screaming one) was most likely his next target.

 _A PK'er?_

A mixture of fear, adrenalin and anxiety flooded my veins as I watched the two players go at it. The screaming player seemed to be losing the fight, as his HP bar was bordering dangerously close on entering the red zone. The other one seemed to be enjoying this, his face carrying a crooked smile with eyes that betrayed the madness within. This was, without a sliver of a doubt, an attempted PK. And judging by the color of his cursor, the smiling player had already succeeded in killing someone before.

My body frozen still by a whirlpool of emotions, I could do nothing but watch as the fight continued, with the PK'ers smile growing wider every time the screaming players' HP bar dropped.

 _What the fuck are you doing?! HELP HIM! DO SOMETHING!_

I desperately tried to make my petrified body move, but to no avail. I was in a state of complete shock, my mind refusing to acknowledge the situation in front of me. Why would someone want to kill a Clearer? Why would anyone purposefully stunt the progress of the game by a removing an important member of the frontline group?

Then finally, after what felt like an eternity, the PK'er seemingly grew tired of toying with his food. Deflecting a wild strike from the screaming player, he looped his sword back around and stabbed his target in the stomach. The sword went clean through his armor, and protruded out the back of his torso. A fountain of blood spilled from where the sword had entered his body, coloring the arm of the PK'er red, and his screams were silenced as pain flooded his every nerve. And then, after a couple of seconds, he exploded, leaving nothing behind except for a plethora of floating fragments.

 _No…_

Meanwhile, my blood froze to ice in my veins as I watched him die, the PK'er screaming out a mocking laughter that echoed far into the labyrinth. I had just witnessed someone get killed right in front of me, and done nothing to stop it from happening. I had stood there and watched as an innocent player lost his life to a madman, without helping him.

 _No…_

 _I…_

 _What…_

 _No…_

 _NO…_

I could feel my sanity slipping, my mind looping in circles as my heartbeat gradually rose in intensity. Nothing made sense anymore. Rationality flew out the window. Logic was replaced by anger and adrenaline, and sheer, unbridled **rage** filled my thoughts. A veil of red descended upon my vision as every fiber of my being called out for revenge. This anger would not be contained, would not be controlled. It wanted nothing more than to kill, kill and then kill some more. This PK'er had awoken something within me that I never knew existed. Pure, unadulterated fury.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I screamed as I rushed forwards towards the unsuspecting player, who was now busy looking through his menu. Needless to say, he never stood a chance. My sword shining a deep shade of blue, I shot forwards like an arrow, hellbent on ending this man's existence. In the moments before my blade connected with his neck, I saw his eyes widening in surprise, surprise that was quickly replaced by fear, a feeling that he had most certainly not felt in a long time.

And then it was over. A loud thud resounded throughout the labyrinth as my sword cut straight through his neck tissue and separated the PK'ers head clean from his torso. A spurt of blood splashed across my face as I followed the Sword Skill through to completion, and as the Skill ended, the sound of a body hitting the floor filled my eardrums.

 _Holy shit…_

 _Holy fucking shit…_

Turning around on shaky legs, I dared take a look behind me at the death I had caused. And there, laying on the ground just a couple of meters away from me, was the now headless body of the PK'er, a pool of blood gathering around the area where his skull had once been.

Needless to say, I couldn't handle the sight of it. I immediately bent over and threw up all the contents of my virtual stomach, covering the labyrinth floor with yesterdays' dinner and todays' breakfast. I absentmindedly noted that it was weird that I was able to throw up at all, considering that this wasn't the real world and that every action in here would have to be programmed ahead of time. The only answer I could think of was that Kayaba Akihiko had somehow decided to program in the sensation and action of throwing up, for some outlandish reason beyond my understanding.

After successfully emptying myself of all the food in my system, I fell down to my knees, my brain desperately trying to process what had just happened. On some level, I understood what I had done. I had taken another person's life, and that was a burden that was going to follow me for the rest of my life. But a different part of me refused to accept this, and strived to suppress my memories of the event as quickly as it could.

It was in the midst of this that a new window appeared in front of me. I had never seen this particular screen before, and as such, even in my despair, it managed to pique my interest enough for me to look at it. Reading the first line, an eerie sense of foreboding washed over me.

 **KILL REWARD**

 _What…? K… Kill Reward? What the hell is that?_

Looking down at the contents of the window, I was left speechless at what I saw. According to this, I had just received a massive Cor and EXP boost for killing that player. It was more Cor than I had ever received for killing a mob (including the Field Boss), and the EXP was enough to push me just up to Level 11, which was absolutely crazy considering how far away I had been from reaching said Level.

 _Sword Art Online… rewards you… for killing other players?_

The thought of it alone made my entire being quake in fear, my brain short-circuiting at the realization of what this could lead to. If word got out that killing other players gave you massive rewards… well, the entire server could potentially fall into disarray. The number of Player-Killing Guilds would rise exponentially, and even the simple act of travelling from place to place on your own could turn into a potential death sentence.

 _I need to tell the others about this._

This singular thought filled my mind as I looked down at the window in front of me, my mind still reeling from the thought of it all. This could NOT be made public knowledge. We could NOT give players an incentive to kill each other, especially now that death in the game meant death in the real world. The point of the game was to work together to get to the top floor. That could not be done if everyone was busy fighting each other instead.

Opening up my menu, I maneuvered over to the Friends List tab, and wrote up a quick message to each of the people on there. The message itself was relatively simple: in it, I urged everyone to meet up at a pre-determined location in Urbus as quickly as possible, citing "life-or-death stuff" as the reason why.

As soon as the messages had been sent, I took one last look back at the area in which I had killed a person for the first time, before setting course for the exit to the labyrinth. I had to tell the others about this. They needed to know.

 _This death game just got a whole lot deadlier…_

* * *

 **A/N: The plot thickens! I really like this idea of PK-ing offering rewards instead of just punishments. I always felt like that whole system was sorely underdeveloped in the canon version of SAO, so I wanted to expand on it here and make it a bit more interesting for our heroes. I hope you found it cool as well!**

 **As always, I do have to apologize for my absence as of late. Life has been very busy for me recently, with university starting back up again and me moving to a new apartment. Sadly, it doesn't look like things are gonna slow down any time soon, but I can promise you that I will try to update this story more frequently than I have up until now (the last chapter of this story was published in July, and that's a long-ass time ago). I hope you remain excited about it, and are willing to keep up with my horrible schedule (lol).**

 **In other news, I finally found the time to actually sit down and watch Alicization, and I gotta say, I'm... positively surprised. It was way better than I expected it to be , and I find myself somewhat hyped for the October release of the second part. Maybe I can make it so that the release of my next chapter coincides with the release of Episode 1 of War of the Underworld? Haha, just a thought.**

 **But I do believe it's about time for me to wrap this A/N up. As always, if you enjoyed the read, please leave a review, and I will see you guys in the next chapter!**

 **-Twisted**


	6. Chapter 6 - Asterius the Taurus King

**A/N: Sword Art Online is the property of Reki Kawahara, A-1 Pictures, Yen Press and Aniplex USA. Please support the official release.**

* * *

 **Floor 2 – "Carrion's Rest" – Town of Urbus**

The atmosphere in the room was tense to say the least. Nobody dared say a word or even make a sound as I paced back and forth across the floor, my mind deep in thought. It had been roughly an hour since I had sent the original message in the labyrinth, and miraculously enough, all of the people who had received it had shown up. Although I felt slightly guilty for dragging them back from the frontlines this early in the day, I figured that what I had to say would make up for any lost progress this impromptu meeting might cost them.

"Alright, now that we are all gathered…" I suddenly said, stopping dead in my tracks and fixing each and every one of them with a serious look. "You are probably wondering just why I called you here today."

"Yeah, you could say that," Klein muttered, awkwardly scratching the back of his head with one hand. "I mean, it's not that I mind having a little friendly reunion, but you gotta admit, you didn't exactly set us up for a very festive mood by starting your message out with the sentence "we have to meet, life or death stuff"."

"Yeah, what was that all about?" Marco said, following Klein's example. "You'd think that something seriously bad has happened for you to send us a message like THAT."

"That's because something bad HAS happened, Marco," I sighed, leaning up against the wall behind me before continuing. "I've… discovered something… And I feel like you guys need to know about it."

"What did you find out, Kirito-kun?" Asuna asked, her voice steady and supporting despite the tense mood that hung over our little group.

"Well… there's really no easy way to say this, but…" I started, letting the sentence trail off before I dropped the metaphorical bomb that would forever change the way they viewed SAO.

"I killed someone."

The room instantly went dead silent. No one as much as breathed as their eyes gradually widened in shock. I couldn't really blame them though. I probably would have reacted the exact same way if someone told me they had murdered someone. SAO was a death game now after all, so killing another player essentially made you into a real life murderer.

"What… do you mean… you killed someone?" Asuna finally whispered, her entire body shivering slightly as she uttered those cursed words.

"I mean I killed someone, Asuna. There's no way to sugarcoat it. I ended another person's life, erasing them from both this world and the real one, and I am fucking terrified because of it," I replied, my voice breaking slightly at the end. The more I thought about it, the worse it felt. I had been the defining factor behind someone's death. I was the one who was responsible for the NerveGear frying their brain and taking their life. Even if one could argue that it was done in self-defense, that still didn't change the nature of the act. It was still horrible, no matter how you looked at it.

"But… WHY? Why would you do such a thing?!" Asuna cried, a hint of desperation entering her voice. "What reason could you possibly have had for killing another player?!"

And so I told them the story of how I had encountered the PK'er, of how I had been exploring the labyrinth before hearing that shiver-inducing scream of terror, of how I had stood by and watched as an innocent player was murdered, and of how I had ultimately ended up taking the murderers life out of sheer rage. Once I was done, the others looked positively crestfallen. It was like they didn't know how to react, or if they should feel sorry for me or hate my guts.

"I'm… sorry you had to go through that, Kii-boy…" Argo finally muttered, her face turned downwards to hide what I suspected was tears. "I can't say I would have reacted any differently if I was in your position…"

"Yes, I am… sorry as well, Kirito-kun…" Asuna breathed, a single tear sliding down her cheek as she closed her eyes. "I was just so surprised when you told me you killed someone that I couldn't help but doubt you…"

"Hey, guys, it's okay. I don't blame you. If anything, I appreciate that you all take me seriously enough to come all the way back to Urbus just because I sent you a message," I answered, my hands held up in an apologetical manner. "But I'm afraid… I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet."

"What could possibly be worse than being forced to kill someone?" Klein asked, obvious sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Well… that's just it. The game… rewarded me for it…" I grimaced, reliving the moment when the pop-up screen showed up in front of me in my head.

"WHAT?" they all shouted out in unison, disbelief coloring their every feature.

"Yeah, it's bad… Once I had… successfully finished off the PK'er… the game presented me with a "Rewards" window unlike anything I've ever seen in this game. Not only did it reward me with a serious EXP boost, it also gave me a crazy amount of Cor to boot. I'm talking more EXP and Cor than we got from killing the Field Boss…" I sighed, opening up my menu and turning it around for the others to see. Once they got a good look at it, they all reacted in the exact same way: by pointing out the obvious difference.

"IT PUSHED YOU ALL THE WAY TO LEVEL 11?!"

"Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I didn't think it was even possible to hit such a high level this early in the game. Heck, the only way we even got to level 10 was because we practically solo'ed a Field Boss. Who would have thought that killing another player would reward you with that much experience?"

"This… this is absolutely ridiculous…" Klein breathed, his eyes wide in shock. "Why bother grinding mobs all day when you can just kill another player for an insane EXP boost? That practically breaks the fucking game! No MMO should reward you THAT much just for participating in PvP!"

"I'm guessing it's Kayaba Akihiko's personal way of saying: "oh by the way, fuck you" to all of the players. A final solution to create the perfect Death Game: by having all of its contestants kill each other for rewards instead of working together," Marco sneered, shaking his head in anger.

"No… who would do such a horrible thing…" Asuna whispered, her hands covering her mouth to prevent herself from screaming. "Why… why…"

"Well, whatever the reason, it's obvious now that Kayaba intended for people to eventually fight each other in SAO," Argo stated, tapping her foot against the ground as she spoke. "Which just begs the question: what do we do with this new information? We can't just go around telling everyone about this, that would just make things ten times worse than they already are…"

"Yeah, tell me about it…" I replied, my mind running in circles as I tried to make heads and tails of the situation. "No good is going to come from spreading the word about Player-Killing offering rewards. I mean, it's bound to come out eventually, but for now, I think it's best if we remain silent about it and keep it to ourselves."

"I'm with Kirito on this," Klein nodded, stroking his stubbly beard in contemplation. "I guess we gotta start being extra careful while out in the field too. Don't wanna get jumped by a group of bloodthirsty maniacs whilst you're out grinding for EXP and loot on your own."

"Maybe we should party up as well, just to make sure we don't run into any trouble. I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to attack a group of 5 people in broad daylight, after all," Marco added, already opening up his menu to send out the invites.

"At least until we get off this Floor, I think that's a good idea," I responded, pressing the floating button that had appeared in front of me with one hand. Seconds later, I saw three additional health bars pop up in the upper left corner of my field of view. "It probably won't be long before the boss room of this floor is located anyway, and seeing as we were all planning on participating in the boss fight, it doesn't hurt to party up a little earlier than planned."

"Yeah, about that…" Argo cringed, looking down at the floating invite window in front of her. "I'm not sure if I should join the party just yet…"

"Why not?" Marco asked with a look of clear confusion on his face. "You got a death wish or something?"

"Nah, not exactly. It's just that… I am an information dealer, right? That means I'm constantly going to and from places in order to get new information, which doesn't really work when you're in a group of 5. I work better alone, and with my high Agility stat, I'll easily be able to outrun anyone who tries to off me," she replied with a smile, leaving the rest of us looking rather dumbfounded.

"Ditching your friends and risking your life just to earn a quick buck Argo? As expected of Aincrad's greatest information dealer," I joked, sighing dramatically as I did so. Despite the tense mood, everyone laughed at my comment, and before long, we had all said our goodbyes to Argo, watching her leave the room with a beaming smile on her face.

"So, what do we do now?" Asuna asked, reequipping the rapier from her menu since she had taken it off before our little meeting started.

"Well, I guess the only thing we CAN do is head back out to the labyrinth. We gotta find that boss room and get off this Floor once and for all. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick and tired of ox-type monsters," Marco shrugged.

The rest of us whole-heartedly agreed, and thus we left the inn room at "Carrion's Rest" and headed out towards the dungeon, intent on finding the boss room before nightfall.

* * *

 **Floor 2 – Boss Room**

"It's coming straight for you, watch out!" I shouted out as Marco rushed forwards to switch positions with Klein who had been tanking for most of the fight so far.

"Yeah, I can see that, genius!" he replied sarcastically as he held up his sword to block the oncoming attack from **"Asterius the Taurus King"**. The Floor Boss's massive hammer came swinging down with the force of a thousand stars, and a shower of sparks erupted from the point of impact as it made contact with Marco's blade. To my surprise though, Marco held his ground, despite his health bar taking a good chunk of damage from the attack.

" **Asterius the Taurus King"** was the Floor Boss of the floating castle of Aincrad's Second Floor, and had six HP bars. His appearance was that of a Taurus, with his legs being thick as tree trunks, his waist covered with sturdy, dark chainmail, and a silvery platinum crown resting atop the centre of its head. His body was black as ink, and a twisted beard hung down from his chin all the way to his stomach, giving him the appearance of a really buff, extreme tall angry Taurus granddad. It actually would have been kinda funny if we had seen him outside of a life-or-death scenario, but now that we were risking our very lives to fight against him, we weren't exactly in the mood to laugh.

"Now, while he is recovering from the attack! Hit him with everything you've got!"

Every member in my party rushed towards the boss with battlecries erupting from their mouths, unleashing all the Sword Skills they could muster before retreating. Every time a blade sliced through the Taurus's thick skin, a small fountain of blood would spurt out, covering the body of the attacker in a red haze. The sickly-sweet smell of copper hung in the air, making it hard to breathe.

"Good, that was a great attack! But watch out, he's about to use a Skill!" I instructed, repositioning myself a little to the left to avoid the skill's expected area-of-effect. "Everybody, get back now!"

Leaning backwards, the boss started sucking in enormous amounts of air, his massive chest bulging like a barrel with little white sparks crackling out of his nostrils. Then, he suddenly shot forwards, releasing a beam of pure lightning from his mouth, the electricity scorching the very air as it made its way across the room. To our great horror, one unlucky player from the DKB didn't manage to get out of the way in time, and was caught in the blast, his body being thrown violently back towards the wall. Once he finally landed, he remained still as a "Stun" icon appeared over his head. The lightning attack had inflicted the "Stun" effect on him, rendering him immobile for 20 seconds. Sadly, that was all the time the boss needed to rush over to him and smash its massive hammer down on his unmoving body. Underneath its tremendous weight, we heard the chilling sound of bones breaking, accompanied by an ear-piercing howl of pain. The player didn't suffer for long, though, as his health bar instantly hit negative two thousand, resulting in the destruction of his avatar and the death of his real world body.

The rest of us watched on in shock as the boss steadily got to his feet, a smear of blood coloring both the floor and the hammer as he did so.

 _God fucking dammit_ , I thought to myself as I tried to force my hands to stop shaking. _Another member of the frontline group gone. How the fuck are we ever gonna get out of here if we lose so many players already on the Second Floor? We have already lost three people…_

Since the start of the boss fight, three frontline players had lost their lives in the struggle. Two had died to the ads (minions) spawned by the Boss, **"Baran the General Taurus"** and **"Nato the Colonel Taurus"** , before we managed to finish them off, and now one had been killed by the actual boss himself. If we kept going at this rate…

 _It's only a matter of time before one of my party members dies._

"Don't give up yet, guys! We gotta finish this fight before we lose anyone else!" I said, not really knowing where my hopeless optimism came from. Usually, I was an insecure guy who didn't like to be in the center of attention, but for some reason, whenever we fought in large scale raids like this, my personality totally switched, and I just sort of assumed the leader position. I had no clue where this unknown strength came from, but I wasn't planning on letting it go to waste now that I had it. I was gonna win us this fight, even if I had to kill the Floor Boss myself.

"I'll tank the next attack, so get into position!"

Rushing forward with my sword held high, I made sure the boss's attention was locked firmly on me before planting my feet on the ground and bracing for impact. The hammer came down with a thunderous boom, and although I managed to deflect it to the side with great exertion, I still felt my very bones vibrate with the power of the attack, accompanied by an all too familiar sense of pain flooding my nerves.

"Argh…"

To my great surprise, however, the boss wasn't done just yet. Lifting the hammer up for a second time, he swung it back down again with astonishing speed, causing me to throw myself forwards in a desperate attempt at dodging the attack. Luckily enough, I just barely managed to get out of the way in time, and the hammer landed just a couple of centimeters behind me with a great bang. To everyone else watching though, it looked like I had been smashed flat by the massive weapon, and so I heard several of my party members cry out my name in shock.

"Kirito!"

"Kirito-kun!"

"I'm fine! Don't worry about me, keep attacking the boss!" I shouted back, a hint of frustration entering my voice. Why couldn't they see that all that mattered now was defeating this giant colossus of a boss? We didn't have the time to get sentimental about every little accident and every loss we suffered. We had to focus on winning the fight, so that we didn't lose anyone else.

Deep inside, though, I knew my anger at them was misdirected. But I couldn't help but feel that way as I rushed towards the now exposed stomach of the Floor Boss, my sword shining a deep shade of crimson.

"Take this, you fucking…!" I screamed as I plunged my blade deep into the monsters' abdomen, a torrent of blood spraying out from the wound. But I wasn't done just yet. Still reeling from the strike, I chained the end of the skill into another one, activating a second Sword Skill that swung my sword back around in an arc to deliver yet another slash to the beasts' stomach. Once that was done, however, the recovery period from using a Sword Skill finally kicked in, and I was left motionless as my body waited out the timer.

Despite being badly hurt, the Floor Boss's nostrils flared with rage, and he used his one free hand to swipe at my utterly defenseless body. I let out a scream of pain as his massive, hulking hand connected with my torso, sending me flying across the room before I collided with the wall on the opposite side. Staring up at my health bar with my teeth clenched, I watched as it dropped well into the yellow zone before stopping.

"Jesus, Kirito! Are you okay, man?!" I heard Klein yell, but all I could do was grunt in response. The feeling of pain was intense, visceral and all-encompassing, and I had to wait several seconds before it finally started to subside. But once it did however, I got up on my feet to shout out my next order:

"Asuna, switch with me whilst I heal back up!"

"Got it!"

Despite being in a state of shock just moments earlier, Asuna's keen mind immediately caught up with the situation, and she rushed forwards to take aggro whilst I opened up my menu. Up ahead, the boss let out a roar of anger before charging towards the female fencer.

The battle continued on like this for several minutes, with the ALS and DKB members also starting to tank aggro every now and then. Up until now, it had mostly been my group that was tanking the boss, due to our higher levels and better gear, but seeing us fight so valiantly must have inspired the other players to do more on their end as well.

Finally, we managed to get the boss down to its last HP bar, where its black skin started burning and sizzling like hot coal, signaling that it had just entered a "Berserk" state. From there on out to the end of the fight, all of its attacks were heavily buffed, so we had to be extra careful when fighting him, having three people tank each hit rather than just one. And then, after what felt like an eternity, we finally managed to slay **"Asterius the Taurus King"** , with Asuna being the one to receive the Last Attack bonus. With this, the Second Floor of Aincrad had been cleared, and the way to the Third Floor had been opened.

* * *

Letting out a long sigh, I sat down on the cold stone floor before whipping out a health potion. That certainly had been a tough fight. Despite the positive outcome, I still felt a strong sense of disappointment weighing down on my mind. We had lost three people today, three valuable members of the frontline group, and that was not something to take lightly. The number of players working to clear the game was already way too small from before, so we certainly couldn't afford to lose so many people with every Floor Boss we fought.

"Hey, good work out there today. You really stepped up to take charge this time," Marco said somewhere to my right, prompting my face to flush a deep shade of crimson.

"Eheheh… Yeah, I guess I kinda did. I dunno why it happens, but I have a tendency of getting really worked up during big fights…" I responded sheepishly, a shy smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

"YOU MASSIVE IDIOT!" Asuna suddenly shouted, causing me to jump in surprise. Her anger came right out of left field for me, and as a result, I ended up dropping my health potion out of sheer fright.

"You could have died out there, you know! What was that reckless charge you did?! Don't you know that chaining together Sword Skills leaves you vulnerable for an even longer period of time than just using one?! Why didn't you back off instead of attacking it a second time?!" Rushing towards me, the chestnut-haired fencer fixed me with a look of sheer rage, and I couldn't help but gulp silently in terror at the sight of her. Right now, she was more terrifying than any Floor Boss, and I inwardly decided to do my best not to get on her bad side in the future.

"Hey, I'm sorry! I just thought that… you know, I could get in one more hit before retreating. That… might've been a mistake though…"

"Yeah, no shit! Don't do that in the future, okay?" she sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Okay, I promise, Asuna!" I replied, nodding fervently in an attempt at satisfying her anger. I had a feeling that, in that moment, I would be willing to do anything she asked of me as long as it got her to stop being mad. I really didn't want to risk unleashing the full wrath of her anger by accident, after all.

"Good. That's all I ask," she nodded, turning away from me with a satisfied "hmph".

"…She's scary," Marco breathed.

"Yeah, for sure," I agreed, shuddering slightly at the thought of it.

* * *

Ascending the staircase to the Third Floor, we walked out into the cold, night air and took a good look at our new surroundings. What greeted us was a massive forest choked with thick fog, lush flora and green terrain. It was obvious that this was a forest-themed Floor, but I didn't really mind that as I had always liked forests. In front of us, we could see the outskirts of the main city of the Third Floor, a city seemingly made up of three gigantic baobab trees, with many-floored structures cut into them. Consulting my mental memory of what I knew about the beta test, I vaguely remembered reading that the city was called Zumfut, and that it was the starting point of an infamous quest chain known as the Elf War campaign, a quest chain that I had no intention of doing.

As crazy as it might sound to drop such a big questline, the Elf War campaign wasn't the ONLY multi-floor quest chain that started here on the Third Floor. There were others, more obscure quests to be undertaken. Quests with very interesting rewards. And I had always preferred the less mainstream route anyway.

 _Two Floors down, only 98 to go… Bring it on, Kayaba. I'm not going to die here. I'll make sure I survive this Death Game, no matter how many obstacles you throw my way!_

With those thoughts resonating throughout my mind, I started heading towards the city of Zumfut together with my party, not bothering to take as much as a single glance backwards at the tunnel we had emerged from.

* * *

 **A/N: And there we have it! The end of yet another chapter! This fanfiction is really starting to hit its stride now, and I can't wait to share more of Kirito and the gang's adventures going forward. Now, I know that I originally said I would try to have this chapter out by the release of the first episode of War of Underworld, but despite failing that initial goal, I only missed it by a day! I would say that's pretty alright, at least by my standards.**

 **Believe it or not, but I actually wrote this entire chapter in a single day. I don't know what came over me, but I was struck by some serious inspiration, and just decided to bang this one out while it lasted. I've been staring at it for so long now though, that I can't really tell if it's good or not. You'll have to tell me by leaving a review with your thoughts!**

 **As far as the next chapter goes, I don't really know when I'll have it done, but expect it to take at least two weeks, if not more. Now that I have written two chapters in a row for this fanfic, I have to get back to my Harry Potter one for a while, but I'll be back here again before you even know it! So keep your eyes posted for updates until then.**

 **And as always, if you enjoyed the read, please do leave a review, maybe even a Follow or Favorite, and I will see you guys in the next chapter!**

 **-Twisted**


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